United States Children

Alcoholism is an addiction and a disease that affects about 10 to 12 percent of the drinkers in the United States. Children of alcoholic parents have a greater chance of be coming addicted than others, because they may carry genetic predisposition for the disease. 

Dey, A. N. Bloom, B. Summary Health Statistics for United States Children National Health Interview Survey, 2003 DHHS Publication PHS 2005-1551 Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC, 2005. 

Kost GJ. Critical limits for emergency clinician notification at United States children s hospitals. Pediatrics 1991 88 597-603. 

Aspinn possesses a number of properties that make it an often recommended drug It is an analgesic effective m relieving headache pain It is also an antiinflammatory agent providing some relief from the swelling associated with arthritis and minor injuries Aspinn IS an antipyretic compound that is it reduces fever How aspmn does all this was once a mystery but is now better understood and will be discussed m Section 26 6 Each year more than 40 million lb of aspirin is produced m the United States a rate equal to 300 tablets per year for every man woman and child... 

N. W. Childs, "The Changing Role of the United States in the World Rice Market," in U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rice Situation and Outlook Yearbook, Economic Research Service, RS-55, Washington, D.C., 1989. 

Over 100 billion pounds (50 million tons) of synthetic polymers is produced annually in the United States (Tables 1.5 through 1.8), and the growth of the industry is continuing at a fast rate. There is every reason to believe that this polymer age will continue as long as petroleum and other feedstocks are available and as long as consumers continue to enjoy the comfort, protection, and health benefits provided by elastomers, fibers, plastics, adhesives, and coatings. The 100 billion pounds of synthetic polymers consumed each year in the United States translates to over 300 pounds for every man, woman, and child in the United States. This does not include paper and wood-related products, natural polymers such as cotton and wool, or inorganic polymers (Table 1.8). 

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report Intolerable Risk Pesticides in Our Children s Food focused on the increased risk of the adverse effects of pesticides on children. This was in part because of the smaller size of the child relative to the adult and because of different food consumption practices. Relative to their size, children eat, drink, and breathe more than adults in part because they are growing. The use and regulation of pesticides illustrate the complexities of risk analysis and risk management and the difficulties in determining an acceptable level of exposure with acceptable risks. In the United States approximately 1 billion pounds of pesticides (with about 600 different active ingredients) are used annually in the agricultural sector, and worldwide approximately 4 billion pounds are used. There are a range of human health and environmental health effects associated with the use of pesticides. 

H4. Holtzman, N. A., and Watson, M. S., Promoting safe and effective genetic testing in the United States. Final report of the Task Force on Genetic Testing. J. Child Fam. Nurs. 2(5), 388-390 (1999). 

Rates of Homicide, Suicide, and Firearm-Related Death among Children—26 Industrialized Countries. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 46, February 7, 1997, pp. lOlffi Concludes that the United States has by far the highest rates of child homicide, suicide, and firearms-related deaths among the industrialized nations. 

Psychiatrists who use ECT or refer adolescents for ECT should be familiar with all aspects of the treatment. For example, several states in the United States have age-related prohibitions for the use of ECT. It is not permitted in Texas and Colorado in persons under 16 years of age, in Tennessee for those under 14 years, and in California for those under 12. Most states require independent assessment of children and juveniles by one or more child and adolescent psychiatrists before ECT may be administered. This assessment must be conducted by psychiatrists not involved in the treatment of the patient. There are some noteworthy problems with the second opinion or independent assessment requirement, given a lack of knowledge about or experience with the treatment among many child psychiatrists (Parmar, 1993 Walter et al., 1997 Ghaziud-din et al., 2001). 

Recently, Janssen Pharmaceutica launched several studies of risperidone in children with borderline IQ or MR and a diagnosis of disruptive behavior disorder (usually oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder). To be admissible into the study, subjects needed to be 5 to 12 years old, inclusive, and score above 24 on the Conduct Problem subscale of the Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form (NCBRF). One 6-week acute trial (n = 118) was conducted in the United States (Aman et al., in press), whereas the other n = 110) was based in Canada (Snyder et al., in press). The findings of the two studies were virtually identical, with... 

Simeon et al. (1995) mailed questionnaires to 135 child psychiatrists in 43 countries to obtain more precise information on the views and approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of childhood psychiatric disorders. Of 43 questionnaires returned, data from 38 respondents representing 24 different countries were included. The study indicated that child psychiatrists in Europe and elsewhere outside the United States would use methylphenidate to treat 58% of ADHD patients, with their second choice being imipramine (18%), and 11% would not use medication. The investigators reported that one of the controversies that remained was the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD, as the prescription rates varied extremely from one country to another. In Italy, for example, the diagnosis of ADHD was rarely made and psychostimulants were rarely used. The authors concluded that the choice of medication was frequently restricted by lack of availability as well as by political or social attitudes (Simeon et al., 1995). 

The issues of whether depression is underdiagnosed, and more generally, whether the construct of depression is also applicable to children, have been discussed in both Europe (Rutter et ah, 1986) and the United States (Beardslee et ah, 1985). As in the DSM-IV, the ICD-10 has no specific category for depressive disorder in childhood, so diagnostic criteria developed for adult patients must be applied to children. However, a combination category for depression and conduct disorder is included in the ICD-10, depressive conduct disorder, for which the child must fulfill criteria for both depression and conduct disorder. 

Child psychiatry in Japan has a relatively long history of its own. In the 1950s, several medical schools started child psychiatric services in their departments of psychiatry, primarily through child psychiatrists who had trained in the United States. In 1959, clinical psychiatrists and allied professionals who were interested in mental health and disorders of children first established the Japanese Society of Child Psychiatry. This society published the first issue of the Japanese Journal of Child Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines in 1960, the same year as the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines in the United Kingdom, a year ahead of the Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry in the United States, and well over 30 years before European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 

For all of those reasons, pediatric psychopharmacology is still an underdeveloped branch of medicine in Japan, and is not comparable to that in the United States. Nevertheless, psychopharmacological treatments have been an important part of therapeutics in Japanese child psychiatry. 

During the past century our society has seen significant progress in public health. A child born in the United States one hundred years ago had a life expectancy of 47 years. Today the same child would be... 

In the United States alone there are approximately 50,000 adults with growth hormone deficiency, resulting in dwarfism and there may be as many as 6,000 newly diagnosed cases per annum. The cost of treating a child with growth deficiency is currently estimated at around 11,000- 18,000 per annum. An alternative way of looking at this issue is to note that it costs between 35,000 and 40,000 to increase the height of an affected child by one inch. 

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