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The Kids welcomes the launch of WA’s first policy on youth health which will give young people a voice in the planning of health services that affect them.

Researchers conducted a series of group interviews with young people to find out how much they knew about energy drinks and the consequences of drinking them.

A major review by WA researchers has found medication used to suppress puberty can improve the mental health of young people who are trans or gender diverse.

The emerging literature on desistance (and recovery from addictions) has focused on key life-course transitions that can be characterised as the need for jobs (meaningful activities), friends (transitioning to pro-social) and houses (a home free from threat). The term ‘recovery capital’ is used to characterise personal, social and community resources an individual can draw upon to support their recovery, partly bridging agentic (personal) and structural (community) factors.

Epidemiological data indicate that paternal and maternal mental health difficulties are predictors of conduct disorder (CD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in offspring. We tested the association between maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms and paternal emotional problems with CD and ODD symptoms in adolescent offspring aged 17.

Lurasidone is a new second generation (atypical) antipsychotic agent with unique receptor affinity and side-effect profiles, but limited literature is available on its use in adolescent populations. Contrasting with research treatment trials which typically recruit patients by stringent selection criteria, this case series examined the effects and tolerability of using lurasidone in adolescents within real-life clinical settings in treating complex cases who had not responded to other therapy options. We conducted a retrospective case-note audit of 6 adolescents aged 14 to 17 years old attending community child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) who were prescribed lurasidone.

SPARX is a computerized cognitive behavioral therapy self-help program for adolescent depression that is freely available in New Zealand. At registration, users identify themselves as either male, female, intersex, or transgender. We aimed to describe the mental health of adolescent intersex users. A secondary analysis of SPARX usage data over 5 years.

Epigenetics links perinatal influences with later obesity. We identifed differentially methylated CpG (dmCpG) loci measured at 17 years associated with concurrent adiposity measures and examined whether these were associated with hsCRP, adipokines, and early life environmental factors. Genome-wide DNA methylation from 1192 Raine Study participants at 17 years, identified 29 dmCpGs associated with body mass index, 10 with waist circumference and 9 with subcutaneous fat thickness.

Epidemiological studies indicate that children of parents with mental health problems are at an increased risk of developing anxiety disorders. Few studies have investigated this relationship in young adults. Participants were from the Raine Study, which is a multi-generational birth cohort study in Australia. Maternal anxiety and depression in late childhood were assessed using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-42), and paternal lifetime mental health problems were assessed using a self-reported questionnaire.

There are limited studies on the risk of depressive symptoms in adolescent offspring exposed to parental mental health problems in middle childhood. We investigated the association between parental mental health problems, particularly paternal emotional problems and maternal symptoms of anxiety and depression, and the risk of depressive symptoms in adolescent offspring aged 17.