Parent Burden in Accessing Outpatient Psychiatric Services for Adolescent Depression in a Large State System.

Objective: This study examined barriers facing parents who seek outpatient psychiatric care in a large state system for adolescents with depression.

Methods: A total of 264 outpatient facilities licensed to treat youths in New York were contacted by using a mystery shopper methodology. Callers tracked the number of call attempts, in-person appointments, and other steps required prior to seeing a psychiatrist.

Access to Care for Youth in a State Mental Health System: A Simulated Patient Approach.

Objective: To examine access to psychiatric care for adolescents with depression in outpatient specialty clinics within a state mental health system, using a simulated patient approach.

Method: Trained callers posed as the mother of a 14-year-old girl with depression, following a script. A stratified random sample (n = 264) of 340 state-licensed outpatient mental health clinics that serve youth was selected.

Usual Care for Adolescent Depression From Symptom Identification Through Treatment Initiation.

Importance: Published guidelines describing effective adolescent depression care in primary care settings include screening, assessment, treatment initiation, and symptom monitoring. It is unclear the extent to which these steps are documented in patient health records.

Objective: To determine rates of appropriate follow-up care for adolescents with newly identified depression symptoms in 3 large health systems.

Effects of a summer treatment program on functional sports outcomes in young children with ADHD.

Participation in youth sports can be very beneficial, but children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may participate less often and less successfully. The current study evaluated functional sports outcomes for children with ADHD who attended an intensive behavioral treatment program that included a sports training component, and it compared outcomes to children with ADHD who did not attend the program. Results suggest that treatment resulted in significant improvements in many aspects of children's sports functioning, including knowledge of game rules, in vivo game performance, and fundamental skill tasks (motor proficiency, ability to trap a soccer ball appropriately, reduced handball penalties in soccer, and improved ability to catch a baseball).

Peer influence on youth's snack purchases: a laboratory analog of convenience store shopping.

Objective: This paper reports the results of two experiments using a laboratory analog to examine the influence of taxes and subsidies on youth's snack food purchases when alone (Experiment 1) and when in the presence of a same-gender peer (Experiment 2).

Method: Adolescents (12-14-years-old) completed a purchasing task, during which prices of snack foods were manipulated, either alone in Experiment 1 (N=37) or in the presence of an unfamiliar peer in Experiment 2 (N=52).

Results: In both experiments, purchases of unhealthy snacks decreased and purchases of healthy snacks increased when the price of unhealthy snacks were taxed (increased).

A meta-analysis of behavioral treatments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

There is currently controversy regarding the need for and the effectiveness of behavior modification for children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) despite years of study and multiple investigations reporting beneficial effects of the intervention. A meta-analysis was conducted by identifying relevant behavioral treatment studies in the literature. One-hundred seventy-four studies of behavioral treatment were identified from 114 individual papers that were appropriate for the meta-analysis.