For Girls with ADHD, Stimulant Meds Reduce Odds of Smoking, Drinking, Using Drugs

Substance abuse experts with the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Department of Massachusetts General Hospital have discovered that giving stimulant medications to girls who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder can drastically reduce the likelihood that the girls will use tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs while still in adolescence.

According to an Oct. 6 post on US News & World Report's "HealthDay" blog, the Massachusetts study - which mirrors previous findings for boys who take the medications - refutes fears that prescribing drugs such as Ritalin would increase substance abuse among the youth who were being treated:

Girls with ADHD actually tend to get into trouble with substance abuse earlier than do boys with the disorder, so confirming those results was not simply academic," lead researcher Timothy Wilens ... said in a hospital news release.

For their study, the researchers examined data from 114 girls with ADHD who had enrolled in a study investigating the impact of ADHD on the risk of substance abuse. The girls were between the ages of six and 18 when the study began. They were assessed for tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and other drug use five years after they enrolled in the study. The researchers compared the 94 participants who received stimulant treatment with the 20 who had not been treated.

The girls who had been treated with stimulants had half the risk of smoking, drinking alcohol, and drug abuse as those who had not received treatment. In the participants who did develop substance abuse, stimulant treatment did not affect when they began using substances or the level of dependence.

"We can confidently say that stimulant treatment does not increase the risk of future substance abuse or smoking in girls with ADHD and at least delays the onset of cigarette smoking and substance abuse," said Wilens.

The researchers did not evaluate the effects the medications have on substance use and abuse rates once the patients reach adulthood. The study was published in the October 2008 edition of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Government Website Provides Health, Fitness Info for Adolescent Girls

For the past six years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has managed a website designed to provide health information for adolescent girls.

In the "About" section of www.girlshealth.gov, the program is described as an effort "to inspire health behaviors" within the target population.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health, our mission is to inspire healthy behaviors using positive, supportive, and non-threatening messages. ... The site gives girls reliable, useful information on the health issues they will face as they become young women, and tips on handling relationships with family and friends, at school and at home.

Our tagline is "Be Happy. Be Healthy. Be You. Beautiful." It focuses on the idea that being yourself—finding what makes you smile and how to live well—is what makes you "you." And that is beautiful!

An online media packet describes the site as being organized in the following 10 categories:

• Body - Covers everything from growth and body hair to acne and hair care.


• Fitness - Stresses that being fit means more than only how you look.


• Nutrition - Addresses a healthy diet for a teenage girl and what to do to improve nutrition.


• Illness & Disability - Shows ways to cope with a chronic illness and how to combat the fears of being sick.


• Drugs, Alcohol, & Smoking - Describes all types of substance abuse and what it does to a girl's body.


• Your Emotions - Talks about relieving stress in healthy ways, depression, and teen suicide prevention.


• Relationships - Talks about the importance of healthy relationships and open communication.


• Bullying - Information for girls, parents, and educators about the issues associated with bullying.


• Safety - Addresses safety issues about the Internet, within relationships, and provides general safety tips.


• Your Future - Helps girls discover their talents and plan for the future.

"Let's face it, today's media-savvy teens rely more heavily on the Internet as a reliable source of information than they rely on their parents, teachers, or friends," wrote the program's project manager, Ann Abercrombie, in a letter on the site. "So, it is critical to give them the most reliable and up-to-date health information available."

Study Links Poverty with Sexual Activity Among Young Girls

A Canadian-American study has discovered that girls in poverty-stricken neighborhoods are more likely to engage in sex at a younger age - and are more likely to have older partners and participate in other inappropriate behaviors - than are girls who are more economically secure.

Researchers from two Canadian universities (the Universite de Montreal and the University of New Brunswick) joined colleagues from Tufts University in Boston, Mass., to analyze statistics that had been collected on nearly 2,600 boys and girls (one-fourth of whom resided in impoverished neighborhoods) during Canada's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth.

According to a Sept. 16 article by Marianne White of the Canwest News Service, the researchers reported that girls appear to be influenced more strongly by the socioeconomic status of their neighborhood and peer group than boys are:

"The results suggest that neighbourhoods shape peer groups, which in turn influence when girls become sexually active," said lead author Veronique Dupere, who completed the research at the Universite de Montreal and is now a post-doctoral fellow at Tufts.

Dupere explained that teenaged girls who have shown conduct problems - such as running away, staying out all night or stealing - were more influenced by delinquent friends, who are "thought to provide a pool of willing partners and cultivate a sense that early sexual activity is desirable."

The study found that unlike girls, boys from a disadvantaged background did not become sexually active earlier in their adolescence. "Family and individual risk appeared more influential in boys' timing their first sexual experience," said Dupere.

Among the concerns raised by this study, Dupere said in the Canwest article, is that the impoverished girls may be putting themselves at risk for a range of problems. "Other studies show that early initiators are more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases, undergo unwanted teen pregnancy and to report involuntary sexual experiences," she said.

The study was published in the Sept./Oct. 2008 issue of the journal Child Development.

Teen Author Teaches Fellow Students to Resist Peer Pressure, Develop Self-Confidence

In addition to being a published author, a 16-year-old high school junior from New Jersey has also developed a self-confidence workshop that she presents to groups of elementary and middle-school students.

According to an Oct. 6 article in the Burlington County Times, Kristina Coia started writing at age 11, and quickly expanded her efforts to encourage healthy self-image among fellow students:

Her stories eventually evolved into a program, "Shine Through," which was formed as a group to provide middle school girls with self confidence. The program has since been expanded to include boys and she has developed another program, "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall," for children in first- through fifth-grade.

In addition to presenting two to three programs a month, Coia is working on new books. She's planning a workbook for her "Shine Through" program that could also serve as a journal for participants.

She's planning a series of books for grammar schoolchildren. Each book would focus on a different virtue, she said.

A release posted on Coia's website describes "Shine Through" as a three-part program that teaches young students how to address personal fears and develop both confidence and self-reliance:

Stage One - Discovery. This stage deals with the questions of self doubt, self-consciousness, peer pressure, and idealization. ... In this stage, Kristina teaches that one must take the initiative to find the real you rather then create a façade.

Stage Two - Experimentation. In this stage, Kristina teaches that you must determine who you want to be and what you need to do to become that person.

Stage Three - Be Comfortable With Who You Are. In this stage, Kristina teaches participants not to worry about what others think, be yourself and let yourself shine through.

"The goal of 'Shine Through' is to let each person shine through as the person they really are," Coia said in the release. "It's important to be able to stand up to peer pressure and have the self-esteem to do that. If all of us can do that, we will each shine through in our individual way."

Are Personal Care Products Putting Chemicals into Young Girls' Bodies?

The sample was small, but the findings were nonetheless alarming: A study by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found 16 chemicals from four chemical families in the blood and urine of 20 girls aged 14 to 19.

In a Sept. 24 article on the daily green website, Dan Shapley noted that experts are investigating the effect that these chemicals may be having on the hormone systems of young girls:

These endocrine disruptors -- phthalates, triclosan, parabens and musks -- are associated with cosmetics and body care products, which teen girls use in higher doses than other segments of the population, according to the Environmental Working Group, which conducted the study. Further, because young women are going through rapid development, their long-term health, particularly their reproductive health, could be at risk.

The health risks of the chemicals is not definitively understood, but each has been the target of efforts by consumer, health, and environmental advocates who view independent scientific findings as justification for limiting or eliminating exposure.

Because these chemicals mimic hormones, they may cause effects at very low levels, just as hormones act naturally as chemical messengers to cause changes in the body at low concentrations.

The 20 teens tested - a small sample that can only raise more questions, rather than definitively describe exposure rates - used an average of more than 16 personal care products daily.

In a Sept. 25 article in USA Today, writer Liz Szabo quoted the study's author, Rebecca Sutton, as noting that although the average teen girl uses more personal care products than do adult women, the chemical levels suggest that other sources are also responsible.

"The teens in the study used 17 personal care products a day, with a total of 174 ingredients. In comparison, adult women use an average of 12 personal products a day, the report says," Szabo wrote. "But the report notes that levels of these chemicals in the girls' bodies didn't necessarily match the amount of the chemicals they consumed through cosmetics. That suggests that girls are being exposed through other products, the report says."

Survey Finds Young Girls Are Sexually Bolder When Online

A survey sponsored by the British magazine FYI: Fun Young & Independent has documented that teen girls are more likely to be flirtatious and sexually forward on social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo than they are during face-to-face encounters.

"This is a far cry from the traditional view of teenagers being awkward, shy and ill-informed about sex," Tracy Cox, FYI's sex and relationship expert, said in an article on the magazine's website.

"On the positive side, it means teens are much better informed about sex and almost all research suggests access to good, non-judgmental information about sex decreases the incidence of pregnancy and [sexually transmitted infections]" Cox said. "The negative is that some teens lack the maturity and judgment to deal with a lot of the information they're now exposed to."

The following statistics were compiled from the FYI survey:

• 93 percent of 16- to 21-year-olds and 88 percent of 22- to 24-year-olds use social networking sites.


• 16- to 18-year-olds are much more likely to use social networking sites to contact new friends and flirt (42 percent).


• 16- to 21-year-olds place importance on using the most attractive pictures of themselves (51 percent).


• 41 percent of 16- to 18-year-olds are bolder online.


• 42 percent of 16- to 18-year-olds find it easier to express themselves sexually online.


• 68 percent of 16- to18-year-olds said it was less embarrassing to find out about sex online.

The growing propensity of young people to share personal information in online forums has prompted considerable concern - an issue that reporter Matt Hartley addressed in a Sept. 12 article in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper:

While our digital footprint expands, privacy erodes. More and more, social networkers who are not obsessively careful face the prospect of identity theft, inadvertently marring their own reputation or even inviting the threat of physical harm. As the dangers broaden so too do the reactions: provincial and federal governments are taking the lead in educating users and probing whether social networks are really doing all they can to protect privacy.

While all of these social networking sites offer varying degrees of security and privacy protection — such as restricting who can view certain parts or the entirety of their profile — many users leave the drapes wide open. Whether it's by ignorance or simply a willingness to trust their private details to the public, they leave their photos, their blog postings and their personal information freely available for anyone to discover.

Experts Advise: Teach Young Girls about Breast Health

A concerted effort in recent decades has led to a considerable increase in breast cancer awareness in the United States. But in her Sept. 22 article in the Wall Street Journal, writer Elizabeth Bernstein indicates that this effort has resulted in at least one unintended consequence: heightened fear among young girls who don't understand the true nature and risks of the disease:

Marisa Weiss says she has witnessed a growing fear of breast cancer among young girls, as information about the disease permeates the media. She also has noticed that girls are either uninformed or misinformed about breast health.

"They are still young girls, without the dialogue skills to ask the questions, air their concerns and replace the myths with facts," says Weiss, director of breast radiation oncology at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Pa., and founder of Breastcancer.org, a nonprofit educational organization.

Dr. Miriam Schechter, a pediatrician at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, says she's seeing more awareness of breast cancer among teens and their mothers.

"It's not just that there is breast cancer in their families, but you hear about it in the press and among Hollywood stars," she says, adding that it's important to discuss the topic with girls when they begin to form breasts, to allay their fears.

To help ensure that young girls are getting all the information they need, Weiss and her daughter, Isabel Friedman, have written a book that includes "information on topics such as breast development and size, choosing a bra, how to stand up to teasing, and what healthy foods to eat during this time of growth," Bernstein wrote. "Throughout the book, Friedman, who is 18, gives advice and tells stories from a peer-to-peer perspective."

Weiss and Friedman also visit schools to help teach young girls and their mothers about their breast development and health. Educating adolescent girls is essential, Weiss told Bernstein, because "that's when they are using food, water, beverages and the air they breathe as building blocks for breast tissue. They are laying down the foundation for future breast health."

Ignoring Experts, Parents Delay Daughters' Vaccinations Against HPV

In spite of recommendations from a wide range of health experts, including those at the American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, parents appear to be hesitant about having their daughters inoculated with Gardasil, a vaccine that promises to protect girls and women against several types of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) that can lead to cervical cancer.

According to a Sept. 18 story by National Public Radio reporter Brenda Wilson, the CDC says only 20 percent of girls under the age of 18 had received the vaccination by the end of 2007, the most recent period for which statistics are available.

Experts believe that one reason for parents' reluctance to have their daughters vaccinated is concern about Gardasil's potentially severe side effects. Though these fears have received considerable media attention, pediatricians Dr. Jessica Kahn and Dr. Neal Halsey told Wilson that the science doesn't support the decision to delay vaccination:

Since 2006, there have been 21 HPV-vaccine-related deaths reported to the CDC. The reports require no absolute proof of a link, only a suspicion of one. Researchers were able to investigate only 12 of the deaths.

At Johns Hopkins, Halsey says the evidence doesn't hold up. The rate of serious allergic reactions to the HPV vaccine, he said, appears to be about one in a million.

"To date, my knowledge of the investigations of those rare cases that have occurred have not led to any evidence to suggest that the vaccine was causally related to those," Halsey said.

"There has been quite a bit of coverage in the media related to adverse events caused by HPV vaccines," Kahn said. "And in my practice, I've noticed that that has impacted parents' willingness to vaccinate daughters."

Because the vaccine is of no use once an individual has contracted HPV, Halsey stressed the importance of getting the shot even though parents may think it's "too early" for them or their daughters to be concerned about the virus.

"It is almost universal that children are sexually active - sometimes frequently - before the parents know they are sexually active," he told NPR. "So I wouldn't encourage parents to wait until they are suspicious that their child may be sexually active."

Teen Smoking Linked to Parents and Friends Who Smoke

If you do not want your teens to smoke, a new study from the University of Wisconsin advises that you shouldn't smoke yourself - nor should you allow your children to have smokers as friends.

Among the teen smokers in the study, 73 percent had four or more friends who smoked, and 27 percent said one or both parents were smokers. Half believed that smoking for a year or two was safe.

About 20 percent of American teens are smokers, a rate that has held steady for the past five years even as adult smoking rates declined.

Pre-teens Watch R-Rated and Violent Movies

About 12 percent of children ages 10 to 14 watch extremely violent R-rated movies, according to a new study from Dartmouth University.

The Motion Picture Association allows children under 17 to see such movies only if their parents accompany them.

Researchers asked 6,500 children if they had watched any of 40 violent movies that came out between 1998 and 2002. Boys, minorities, and children whose parents did not restrict their movie choices were the most likely to have seen films in the study, such as "Training Day" (27% of respondents) and "Blade" (33%). This study did not address how children were able to see the films; however, previous studies have found that children most commonly watch them at home on DVD. In one study, 40 percent of under-aged children were able to buy movie tickets to R-rated films without adults present.

"It is quite striking that ten year olds are watching these movies," said lead author Keilah Worth. "Ten years old is not that far away from believing in Santa Claus."

This study appears in the journal Pediatrics.