A study of mental health care in Maryland finds an increasing number of children and teens covered by Medicaid are taking multiple psychiatric meds. This trend towards “polypharmacy” might be happening elsewhere, prior research suggests. In the new study, Maryland kids ages 17 or younger experienced “a 4% increased odds of psychotropic polypharmacy per year…  read on >  read on >

More than two dozen toddlers and at least 128 pregnant women received RSV vaccines they should not have gotten, U.S. health officials say. The mixup, reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, follows approval this winter of two vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The virus is particularly dangerous to older people…  read on >  read on >

THURSDAY, Feb. 15, 2024 (Health Day News) — Schools that want little girls to get plenty of exercise might want to rethink their dress code. A University of Cambridge study of more than 1 million kids in 135 countries found that in countries where most students wear school uniforms, fewer kids get the 60 minutes…  read on >  read on >

Being a class clown is something that humans likely inherited from their ape ancestors millions of years before the first banana-peel prank, a new study claims. Everyone’s seen kids tease one other, whether they’re poking, pulling hair or engaging in the time-old ritual of “I’m not touching you!” This sort of playful teasing also occurs…  read on >  read on >

Everyone’s heard of fighting fire with fire. Now that tactic is coming to breast cancer treatment. Researchers think they’ve figured out a better way to fight breast cancer fueled by the female hormone estrogen – by employing mechanisms used by the male hormone androgen. An experimental drug called enobosarm stimulates the androgen receptor on cancer…  read on >  read on >

School districts could be severely underestimating how many kids are homeless in their communities, allowing those children to fall through the cracks, a new study warns. Schools around the United States report that more than 1.2 million students are homeless every year. But the information gathered by the districts isn’t enough to accurately track homelessness,…  read on >  read on >

When bullies destroy a young victim’s trust, mental health problems are likely to follow them into adulthood, a new study warns. “There are few public health topics more important than youth mental health right now,” said senior study author George Slavich, director of UCLA Health’s Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research, who called for investments…  read on >  read on >

As if painful migraines, hot flashes and night sweats weren’t bad enough, many women in menopause are facing a significantly bigger threat. New research suggests that women with both migraines and vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats) are significantly more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke. “There is a critical need…  read on >  read on >

There is no significant link between premature birth and autism, new research out of Israel suggests.  Findings from the study of more than 100,000 deliveries were presented Tuesday at a meeting of the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine in National Harbor, Md. A summary of the findings was simultaneously published in a supplement to the…  read on >  read on >