Health Buzz: FDA Considers Psychiatric Drugs for Kids and Other Health News

Makers of Popular Antipsychotic Drugs Look to Market Products for Kids

The FDA will decide today if three antipsychotic drugs that are commonly used to treat adults are also safe for use by children. Drugmakers AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly want approval to market Seroquel and Zyprexa for treatment of adolescents with schizophrenia and manic depressive disorder, the Associated Press reports. And Pfizer's experimental drug Geodon, if approved by the FDA, might treat young bipolar patients. Although studies in kids have shown the drugs to be effective when compared to a placebo, some patient and consumer groups are concerned about the medications' long-term effects. Side effects of the drugs include weight gain and high blood sugar. The AP reports that such side effects could increase the risk of developing diabetes. In a December online issue of the Lancet, researchers reported that Seroquel and Geodon, both known as second-generation or atypical antipsychotics, were no more effective than first-generation drugs, which are often cheaper. Only two antipsychotic drugs are currently approved for use in kids.

Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia appear to share common genetic causes, according to a study published in a January issue of the Lancet that involved data on 2 million families.

Is Your Computer Hazardous to Your Kids' Health?

Computer-related injuries serious enough to send someone to the emergency room have increased 732 percent from 1994 to 2006, even though home computer ownership rose less than half that, U.S. News's Nancy Shute reports. Researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, analyzed data from a federal database of 100 emergency rooms around the country and report their findings in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Children under age 5 were most likely to be hurt, and the injuries were caused by tripping over cables or equipment, being hit on the head by a falling computer monitor, or getting caught on equipment. Computer injuries are hardly epidemic, Shute writes. About 9,300 people a year are injured by computers. But because most parents probably never think of the home computer as a potentially dangerous device, it's worth thinking about how to reduce the risk, particularly to children younger than 10, who are the most likely to suffer a head injury.

See Shute's 5 ways to keep kids safe at home, which include avoiding toys made with phthalates and checking for toy recalls. And learn how to keep your kids safe online.

Is Constant Texting a Sign of Insecurity, Narcissism, or Both?

Texting—at bars and other people-packed environments—seems to be replacing smoking as the new dirty social habit that has young people hooked. After noticing the practice during one late-night bar outing, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz asked Kathleen Bogle, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at La Salle University in Philadelphia, What's the deal with all the texting?

What it's really all about is what Bogle calls "impression management"—what kind of image we're projecting to others. We want others to think we're in high demand with a constantly buzzing cellphone, Bogle says. Instead of being astute observers, we're thinking about others observing us.

U.S. News's January Payne wrote last month about cellphone elbow, also known as cubital tunnel syndrome. The nerve condition comes from holding your elbow in an awkward, flexed position for too long—something you may do while chatting on your cellphone. Also, learn how your iPod and BlackBerry can hurt your health and how text messaging can cause injuries from being distracted. Not paying attention while walking and texting can land you in the emergency room, say doctors who have treated face, chin, mouth, and eye injuries resulting from falls.

—Megan Johnson

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