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A new study published in Current Psychiatry Reports looked at substance use among youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The study investigates the question of whether or not substance use has increased or decreased in the youth population during the pandemic,” study author Hannah M. Layman told us. “There are many reasons why both are possible (for example: increasing due to coping strategies or decreasing due to increased time with family). Our study aimed to analyze existing literature to best answer this question. I personally was unsure of what we might find.” [More]

A new study published in PLOS ONE looked at whether dogs can reduce stress levels in school children. “Our research is the first to demonstrate the mediating effects of dog-assisted interventions on stress levels in school children over the school term and in both, children with and without special educational needs,” study author Kerstin Meints told us. [More]

A new two-year longitudinal study published in the BMJ looked at lifestyle risk behaviors among adolescents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our study focused on the ‘Big 6’ health behaviors among adolescents, being physical activity, diet, sleep, recreational screen time, alcohol use and smoking, given these are key predictors of both short- and long-term health and wellbeing,” lead author Dr. Lauren Gardner from the University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre told us. [More]

A new study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health looked at the displacement and isolation of Syrian refugees in Texas. “We initiated a study in the Houston-based Syrian refugee population to examine their post-migratory living conditions, trauma susceptibility and resiliency to gain understanding of their physical and mental well-being,” study author Samina Salim told us. Salim is an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Houston, College of Pharmacy. [More]

Stress in the United States is at an all time high, according to a poll conducted on behalf of the American Psychological Association (APA). The poll showed that top sources of stress for people in the United States were an increase in prices due to inflation, issues with the supply chain, global uncertainty and Russia invading Ukraine. [More]

A new study published in PLOS One looked at depression, anxiety, and happiness in dog owners and potential dog owners during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. “Our study is about the role dogs may have played on owners’ psychological wellbeing when most of the USA was under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” study author Francois Martin told us. “We wanted to know if dog owners would show less signs of depression and anxiety, and if they would report a greater sense of wellbeing.” [More]

A new study published in the Lancet Planetary Health Journal looked at a global survey on climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change. “We know from smaller studies that young people around the world experience climate anxiety and we also know that young people can feel betrayed by those in power who are failing to act on the climate crisis,” study author Elizabeth Marks told us. “However, large scale research was lacking and we wanted to know how widespread these experiences are.” [More]

Carter Weinstein is a freshman at Georgetown University and the author of Conquering Fear: One Teen's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety. Weinstein believes so many teens have anxiety currently because of increasing stress due to the pandemic. “Teens today have an unprecedented amount of stress due to an immense amount of schoolwork, social pressure, and academic competition and college preparation,” Weinstein told us. "Teens are prone to have anxiety already, thus the pandemic (restricting them from seeing their friends, secluding them behind a screen, etc.) has only made matters worse.” [More]

New research presented at the 59th Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting looked at the link between an increased risk of heart disease and stress hormone sensitivity. The study has been published in the Journal of Hormone Research in Paediatrics. “In clinical practice, healthy subjects are characterized by differences in glucocorticoid sensitivity that may influence the therapeutic outcome and any adverse effects of synthetic glucocorticoids,” study author Nicolas C. Nicolaides told us. “Thus, it would be very helpful for clinicians to have a fast and accurate methodology that would enable the classification of individuals based on their tissue sensitivity to glucocorticoids." [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Behavioural Brain Research looked at how chronic vicarious social defeat stress (cVSDS) attenuates newborn neuronal cell survival in a mouse hippocampus. “In the current research, we examined influences of psychological stress on the adult hippocampal neurogenesis, which is assumed to be inseparably connected to the depressive states,” study author Akiyoshi Saitoh told us. [More]