adolescents

Importance: Approximately 19.7% of children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years in the US have a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile for age and sex, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts from 2000. The prevalence of high BMI increases with age and is higher among Hispanic/Latino, Native American/Alaska Native, and non-Hispanic Black children and adolescents and children from lower-income families.

Objective: The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) commissioned a systematic review to evaluate the evidence on interventions (behavioral counseling and pharmacotherapy) for weight loss or weight management in children and adolescents that can be provided in or referred from a primary care setting.

Population: Children and adolescents 6 years or older.

Evidence assessment: The USPSTF concludes with moderate certainty that providing or referring children and adolescents 6 years or older with a high BMI to comprehensive, intensive behavioral interventions has a moderate net benefit.

Recommendation: The USPSTF recommends that clinicians provide or refer children and adolescents 6 years or older with a high BMI (≥95th percentile for age and sex) to comprehensive, intensive behavioral interventions. (B recommendation).

Underage drinking is a significant public health problem in the United States.

This webpage contains interactive activities to help parents, caregivers, and teachers introduce and reinforce key messages about peer pressure, resistance skills, and other important topics related to underage drinking.

These engaging activities are designed for middle schoolers ages 11 to 13. They can be used at home, in classrooms, or in after-school programs.

The content is based on a curriculum for grades 6–8 developed by the University of Michigan. The curriculum was created for the Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study (AMPS), a large-scale project supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

One goal of AMPS was to give students a clearer picture about alcohol use among their peers. Many middle schoolers tend to overestimate how much other students their age really drink. When they learn more accurate information, some of the pressure to drink can subside. Other goals of AMPS were to help students learn skills to resist pressure to drink and to give them reasons not to drink. This site incorporates AMPS goals in these and other features.

This website contains three sections focused on different aspects of alcohol, peer pressure, and resistance skills, followed by a resource list in section 4. The first three sections contain an overview, handouts, and role-playing exercises. The overviews provide background information to help you prepare to discuss alcohol and peer pressure with middle schoolers. The handouts are designed to be given to middle schoolers. The role-playing exercises are designed to be led by an adult and consist of two parts—a guide for the adult leader and a script for the middle schooler to read aloud.

Depression is common among adolescents in Canada and has the potential to negatively affect long-term function and quality of life; despite this, in most affected adolescents depression remains undetected and untreated.

Management requires a multimodal approach, including risk assessment, psychoeducation, psychotherapeutic and pharmacologic treatment, and interventions to address contributing factors.

Support from child and adolescent psychiatrists may be required in the case of diagnostic uncertainty and complex presentations, as well as for patients who do not respond to first-line treatments.

Depression is a leading cause of disability in the US. Children and adolescents with depression typically have functional impairments in their performance at school or work as well as in their interactions with their families and peers. Depression can also negatively affect the developmental trajectories of affected youth. Major depressive disorder (MDD) in children and adolescents is strongly associated with recurrent depression in adulthood; other mental disorders; and increased risk for suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and suicide completion. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among youth aged 10 to 19 years. Psychiatric disorders and previous suicide attempts increase suicide risk.