News and Announcements from Youth Stress and Mood Program

2008 Ann C. Rosenfield Distinguished Community Partnership Awardee
Dr. Joan Rosenbaum Asarnow Professor, UCLA Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences Community Partner: Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services
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Previous news and announcements

NPI&H in the News
The faculty and staff of the Neuropsychiatric Institute & Hospital and the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences are involved in a wide range of activities, some of which have been covered in the news and are available in an on-line format.
Study shows promise for teen suicide prevention
(e! Science News) Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - Roughly 1 million people die by suicide each year. In the U.S., where nearly 36,000 people take their own lives annually, more than 4,600 victims are between the ages of 10 and 24, making suicide the third leading cause of death in this age group. Youths treated at hospital emergency rooms for suicidal behavior remain at very high risk for future suicide attempts. But despite the urgent need to provide them with mental health follow-up care, many don’t receive any such care after their discharge. Consequently, a major goal of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s National Strategy for Suicide Prevention has been to increase rates of follow-up care after discharge for patients who come to the emergency department (ED) due to suicidal behavior.
Depression and Kids: Don’t Miss the Signs
Depression impacts as many as 15-20% of kids at some point during their childhood, and the signs are often missed by parents. But if parents don’t notice there’s a problem, that their “difficult,” clingy, bored child might be depressed, these untreated symptoms can lead to problems later in life, or even suicide. Fortunately, treatment options continue to advance. UCLA’s Youth Stress & Mood program works – via grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the CDC – to better understand depression in children and teens. They’ve been involved in clinical trials examining the benefits of various approaches to treating depression. Joan Asarnow, Ph.D., director of the program, recently answered a few questions about kids and depression, and what parents can do to help. How often does depression in children go undiagnosed? Untreated?
Medical: Studies shed light on suicide prevention, intervention
For many surviving families and friends of suicide victims, the grief of loss is accompanied by shock and guilt. They wonder if there were warning signs that they missed, or steps they might have taken to prevent the loss of a loved one. But even though there has been considerable study into suicide warning signs, they are far from clear. A report by the British Medical Journal examined the experiences of 31 parents, partners, siblings and friends of 14 people between the ages of 18 and 34 who committed suicide. None of the victims was getting specialized mental health care. The findings suggest the relatives and friends did not always get clear and unambiguous warning signals from the suicidal individuals, but even when it was obvious that something was seriously wrong, many of them feared confronting the person or seeking professional help for them.
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