The Medical Minute: The Causes and Signs of Depression in Children
Penn State HealthParents, teachers and others can find it hard to spot signs of depression and anxiety in children – and struggle with how they can help. Here are some tips.
Parents, teachers and others can find it hard to spot signs of depression and anxiety in children – and struggle with how they can help. Here are some tips.
Penn State College of Medicine has been awarded nearly $14 million in funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to study the effectiveness of a program integrating strength training, balance exercises and walking for older adults who have had a fall-related fracture.
Young women may be up on the latest fashions and trends as they prepare for prom season. But what many don’t know is that the tan that looks oh-so-good with their dress may be the first step toward skin cancer.
To ice or not to ice -- that is the question. Or maybe the real issue is to heat or not to heat?
Before giving a child medication, don’t reach into the kitchen drawer and grab a spoon. Instead, use a syringe that uses metric units and be sure the dose is accurate.
Clinical research studies are the reason medical care has improved leaps and bounds in the past few decades. Without these carefully-designed tests for new drugs, procedures or devices, treatments for diseases would not progress.
Tobacco and alcohol use may be the most common cause of head and neck cancers, but a new culprit has come on the scene in recent years. The human papillomavirus (HPV) is now responsible for more than 60 percent of cases of oropharyngeal cancer diagnosed at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
Maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation may prime offspring for weight gain and obesity later in life, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers, who looked at rats whose mothers consumed a high-fat diet and found that the offspring's feeding controls and feelings of fullness did not function normally.
Endometriosis is difficult to diagnose, with women often being told for years that they are experiencing their ‘normal period.’ According to the Endometriosis Foundation of America, it affects one in ten women.
Implementing a well-established business approach allowed physicians to shave hours off pediatric patient discharges without affecting readmission rates in a recent study conducted at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.
Today, 120 fourth-year medical students at Penn State College of Medicine learned where they will spend their residencies in an annual tradition known as Match Day.
The Penn State Board of Trustees today (March 20) approved a proposal to bring the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and PinnacleHealth System together to form a new health enterprise under the umbrella of Penn State Health. The PinnacleHealth System Board of Directors voted earlier in the week to also approve the plan.
Whether dealing with a two-year-old’s tantrum or a six-year-old’s refusal to clean up after herself, many adults have, at some point, pulled a time out from their bag of discipline tools. When used effectively, a time out can train children to behave in acceptable ways.
Occasional stomach aches are part of life. But when they continue for more than a few weeks, come back often or are accompanied by bloody stools and additional symptoms, the cause could be inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD.
To cure colorectal cancer, surgeons have traditionally needed to create relatively large abdominal incisions in order to remove the cancer. Over the years, technological advancements have made it possible to perform the same curative cancer surgeries laparoscopically.
Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital is part of a first-of-its-kind report released today on pediatric and congenital heart surgery.
At one time, many children born with congenital heart disease (CHD) suffered from issues that carried fatal prognoses. But that's changing, thanks to technological advancements.
The use of statins may not be associated with lowering risk for Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Alcohol and caffeine have joined the ranks of milk, juice and other substances that now come in powdered form. Of the two, caffeine is more concerning, says one Penn State Hershey physician.
Dr. Jeffrey G. Wong will join Penn State Hershey as associate dean for medical education at the University Park Regional Campus of Penn State College of Medicine on July 1.
Lots of things have been associated with higher risks of developing certain cancers. But there are very few things that have been proven to have a cause-and-effect relationship.
Medical management and surgical options for people with heart disease improve each year. But coronary disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States.
Penn State College of Medicine researchers contend that professional medical societies must update or amend their Internet guidelines to address when it is ethical to "Google" a patient.
The recent measles outbreak linked to Disney amusement parks in southern California should not be a concern for anyone who has had measles in the past or who has received two doses of the measles vaccine.
Maintaining an independent lifestyle is so important for some people as they age that they keep it a secret that they've experienced a fall.
With many people staring down New Year’s resolutions related to losing weight, some may be wondering if surgical weight loss is right for them. Dr. Ann Rogers, director of Penn State Hershey Surgical Weight Loss, says surgery is only a long-term solution for patients who also resolve to enact some important lifestyle changes.
Each year, radon kills more people than home fires, drowning, falls or drunk driving. It is the number one cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers, taking some 21,000 lives annually.
The Penn State Hershey Center for the Protection of Children has created an online training module – iLook Out for Child Abuse – to help early child care professionals meet new state laws regarding training and reporting of suspected child abuse. The regulations under Act 31 of 2014 take effect on December 31.
Cigarettes have been convicted of many crimes over the years. But the jury's still out on whether their younger, more fashionable cousins – electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes – will meet the same fate.
While the holidays are a time of merriment and festivities for many, some people struggle with depression during this time of year. Dr. Erika Saunders, interim chair of psychiatry at Penn State Hershey, says there are some distinct warning signs to watch for.
E-cigarettes appear to be less addictive than cigarettes in former smokers and this could help improve understanding of how various nicotine delivery devices lead to dependence, according to researchers.
Joy and goodwill aren’t the only things we start spreading to friends, family, colleagues -- even strangers -- this time of year. Late fall and early winter also signal the start of annual spread of the influenza virus.
Scientists at Penn State College of Medicine, working alongside an international team of researchers, have produced the most complete encyclopedia of functional elements in the mouse genome to date and compared it to the human genome. The findings, published recently in Nature, uphold the mouse model of human disease, but pinpoint important differences in gene expression that will guide future health research.
A new study is the first to detail the weight loss patterns of exclusively breastfed newborns. The investigators have captured their findings in an online tool that is the first of its kind to help pediatricians determine whether exclusively breastfed newborns have lost too much weight in the first days of life.
In the early 1990s, autism awareness kicked into high gear, and Pennsylvania responded by developing programs and services to meet the needs of newly diagnosed children. Now, those children have become young adults, and the medical community faces its next challenge – how to serve adults with autism.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 46,000 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the United States this year and more than 39,000 people will die from the disease. But new treatments are extending the survival rate and research continues for a cure.
Mice bred to carry a gene variant found in a third of ALS patients have a faster disease progression and die sooner than mice with the standard genetic model of the disease, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.
Penn State College of Medicine and University of Wisconsin have been awarded a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund the study of a novel way to treat iron deficiency anemia in children.
If you find yourself sneezing and rubbing your eyes as you air out your home, turn on the heat for the first time or head outside to rake leaves, you’re not alone.
From Little League players injuring their elbow ligaments to soccer and basketball players tearing their ACLs, sports injuries related to overuse are becoming more common in younger athletes. Dr. Matthew Silvis, medical director for primary care sports medicine at Penn State Hershey, says specialization is a big reason why.
Both agave nectar and a placebo were more effective than no treatment for young children's cough symptoms, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine. The findings suggest that a placebo could help children more than "watchful waiting."
Late every summer and into every fall, enteroviruses bring a host of unpleasant ailments. This year, Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) has been making headlines for its potentially severe symptoms in children, causing some alarm among parents.
Penn State College of Medicine researchers have developed a nanoparticle to deliver a melanoma-fighting drug directly to the cancer. Delivering cancer drugs directly to tumors is difficult. Scientists are working on new approaches to overcome the natural limitations of drugs, including loading them into nanoparticles.
Subjective screening questions do not reliably identify teenagers who are at risk for hearing loss, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine. The results suggest that objective hearing tests should be refined for this age group to replace screening questions.
The number of infants who die each year from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) has decreased in recent decades as awareness of safe sleeping habits has increased. Yet each year, babies still die from sudden, unexplained causes.
Slow-healing or non-healing bone fractures in otherwise healthy people may be caused by gene variants that are common in the population, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.
As part of its mission of educating and inspiring families to make healthy lifestyle choices, Penn State Hershey PRO Wellness Center has developed and tested a body mass index (BMI) screening letter that leads parents to tools and resources for making healthy lifestyle changes for their families.
The most common way to find out whether you’re overweight or obese is to calculate your body mass index, or BMI -- an estimate of body fat. It’s a good gauge of your risk for obesity-related diseases.
Now that medical professionals have identified gene mutations that predispose for breast cancer, patients can take proactive steps to reduce their risk. Many cases of breast cancer seem to have no genetic link, but people with a strong family history of cancer should consider getting tested to see if they carry a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.