Psychotropic Medication Use and Polypharmacy Among Children and Adolescents Initiating Intensive Behavioral Therapy for Severe Challenging Behavior.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence, trends, and factors associated with psychotropic medication use and polypharmacy among children and adolescents initiating intensive behavioral therapy for severe challenging behavior over a 10-year period.

Study Design: In this retrospective observational study, we examined data from caregiver interviews and patient medical records on the number and types of psychotropic medications prescribed to patients initiating intensive behavioral therapy between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2022. Trends in medication use and polypharmacy across the 10-year period were analyzed using regression analysis, while differences in demographics and clinical factors for patients with use and polypharmacy were analyzed using nonparametric statistical analysis with odds ratios presented for significant factors.

Connecting soil health and water quality in agricultural landscapes.

As soil plays an integral role in the water cycle, the dynamic and inherent attributes of soil are important drivers of the amount and quality of water in streams, lakes, and groundwater. Studies have demonstrated links between agricultural soil management and water movement in soil, to the edge of fields, and across entire watersheds that feed water bodies of interest. Still, not enough is known about linkages between soil management, soil health, and watershed water quality to adequately predict impacts of land use changes and to effectively use soil management as a tool for water resource management.

Cover crop management practices to promote soil health and climate adaptation: Grappling with varied success from farmer and researcher observations.

Soil health is a pathway through which farm and environmental outcomes can be improved together on agricultural landscapes, and management to improve soil health is increasingly recognized as a strategy for agricultural producers to adapt to climate change-related impacts such as erosion and flooding. Many incentive programs exist or are in development to support the adoption of practices that promote soil health for these reasons, but few on-farm trials have compared the intersections of farmer versus researcher observations of soil health or of soil health compared with climate adaptation. The purpose of our study was to assess soil health outcomes and adaptation to simulated climate change in response to cover cropping on working farms enrolled in a Minnesota Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)-funded Environmental Quality Incentives Program.