To date, no research has explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychotropic prescription patterns among young people in Japan, where lockdown measures were relatively less stringent.

This study aimed to investigate changes in the prescription patterns of psychotropic medications for Japanese young people before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, using the DeSC Database.

We conducted an interrupted time-series analysis, with data from February 2016 to November 2022, to assess the pandemic’s effects on psychotropic prescriptions for children, adolescents and young adults. The analysis included subgroups based on age (6–11, 12–17 and 18–22 years) and gender. The number of patients prescribed psychiatric drugs before and after the pandemic was analysed.

Among 93 385 individuals, psychotropic prescriptions – except anxiolytics – increased overall, although not uniformly across age and gender groups. Significant upward trends were observed in the prescription rates of antidepressants (from 2.53 (95% CI 2.21–2.84) to 6.47 (95% CI 5.89–7.05) patients per month), anxiolytics (from −1.83 (95% CI −2.52 to −1.13) to 7.37 (95% CI 6.06–8.67) per month) and hypnotics/sedatives (from −1.48 (95% CI 0.73–2.24) to 6.62 (95% CI 5.21–8.03) per month).

A persistent increase in psychotropic medication prescriptions was observed after the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the influence of age and gender, clinicians and society must prioritise the mental health needs of the female and adolescent populations. These findings may be generalisable to other countries that implemented less stringent lockdown measures.

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and unfavourable lifestyle are both significant risk factors for mental health disorders, yet their combined effects on adolescent depression and anxiety remain poorly understood. This study aims to determine whether PM2.5 exposure and lifestyle are independently associated with adolescent depression and anxiety, and whether there are joint effects between these factors on mental health outcomes.

In this cross-sectional study, 19852 participants were analysed. PM2.5 concentrations were obtained from the ChinaHighAirPollutants (CHAP) dataset. Lifestyle factors were assessed through self-reported questionnaires, and a healthy lifestyle score was developed based on eight lifestyle risk factors. Depression and anxiety were assessed using the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scales. Restricted cubic spline analysed dose–response relationships between PM2.5 exposure and mental health outcomes. The independent and joint effects were assessed using logistic regression models. Both multiplicative and additive interactions (relative excess risk due to interaction, RERI) were examined. Multiple classification approaches were incorporated to ensure robust results.

The study included 19852 participants with a mean age of 15.16 years (SD 1.60), comprising 9886 (49.8%) males and 9966 (50.2%) females. Depression and anxiety were identified in 3845 (19.37%) and 3230 (16.27%) participants, respectively. PM2.5 exposure showed a linear dose-response relationship with depression and anxiety. Joint effects analysis at the 75th percentile of PM2.5 with a lifestyle risk score of 4 revealed the strongest associations, with adjusted odds ratios of 4.49 (95% CI: 3.79–5.33) for depression, 4.01 (95% CI: 3.36–4.78) for anxiety and 4.24 (95% CI: 3.52–5.10) for their comorbidity. Simultaneously, significant additive interactions (RERI > 0) between high levels of PM2.5 exposure and unfavourable lifestyle factors were detected, suggesting synergistic effects on mental health outcomes. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these findings.

High PM2.5 exposure and unfavourable lifestyle factors demonstrated significant independent and joint effects on depression and anxiety among adolescents. These findings highlight that implementing stringent air pollution control measures, combined with promoting healthy lifestyle practices, may be crucial for protecting adolescent mental health.

To assess satisfaction and pain-related knowledge levels following an inclusive Pain Neuroscience Education (PNE) program in improving pain-related knowledge and perceived satisfaction among adolescents with and without intellectual disabilities, and to assess its applicability in digital health education settings.

A multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted in 15 public schools. A total of 373 students (5th–6th grade), including those with intellectual disabilities, participated in a hybrid-format PNE program delivered in two 90-minute sessions. Satisfaction and knowledge were assessed using an adapted, easy-to-read questionnaire, with exploratory factor analysis identifying three core domains: activity format, teacher evaluation, and SDG-related training.

Overall satisfaction and knowledge gains were high across all participants. No significant differences were found between students with and without intellectual disabilities or between urban and rural schools in satisfaction and teacher evaluation. However, rural students reported greater awareness of the SDG-related content (p < 0.05).

The adapted PNE program was well-received and associated with high levels of pain-related knowledge across diverse educational contexts. Its inclusive and hybrid design supports its potential scalability through digital health strategies, promoting equity in pain education.

Adolescence marks a critical period for the onset of anxiety disorders, yet they frequently remain undiagnosed due to barriers such as reluctance to self-disclose symptoms. Objective screening methods that bypass self-report may improve early detection. Speech-derived acoustic markers have emerged as a promising avenue for identifying anxiety disorders. This study investigates associations between acoustic properties of speech, anxiety severity, and anxiety diagnoses in adolescents, evaluated cross-sectionally and longitudinally.

Speech samples from 581 adolescents were collected during the Trier Social Stress Test. Acoustic features were extracted using OpenSMILE and analyzed for cross-sectional associations with anxiety severity (Spearman’s correlations) and longitudinal predictions of future anxiety (linear regressions). Random forest (RF) classifiers with 10-fold cross-validation were used to classify anxious and healthy individuals using acoustic features. Analyses were stratified by sex.

RFs achieved the highest performance for the longitudinal classification of social anxiety disorder (SAD), with an AUC-ROC of 85% (males) and 74% (females). Adding acoustic features to baseline measures increased the variance explained in anxiety by 5.4% (males) and 10.9% (females). In males, higher anxiety was cross-sectionally correlated with reduced pitch slope, narrower pitch range, lower F1 frequency, and greater MFCC1 variability. Females with higher anxiety showed reduced variability in pitch slope. Correlations did not survive multiple testing correction.

Acoustic speech markers elicited in socially evaluative contexts can accurately recognize SAD in male adolescents three years in advance. Performance is moderate for females and other anxiety disorders, underscoring the need for sex-specific approaches to diagnostic tool development.

Severe obesity in adolescents is a public health crisis of increasing concern. Cardiac maladaptation, such as left ventricular hypertrophy, increases the risk of future cardiovascular disease. This study aims to evaluate the impact of weight loss surgery on cardiac geometry in morbidly obese adolescents.

A single-centre, randomised controlled trial titled comparing laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding with multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention against a control group with multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention alone. The trial included severely obese adolescents aged 14–16 who had not responded to a minimum of 12 months of multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention. The primary outcome measured was the percentage change in total body weight one year after surgery. Left ventricular geometry was evaluated ultrasonographically before and one year after bariatric surgery.

In the intervention and control group, a total of 10 and 8 patients received both the baseline and follow-up ultrasonographic examination. BMI significantly decreased in the intervention group compared to the control group (−6.75; 95% CI: -10.28 – −3.23). Moreover, left ventricular mass index (−8.21; 95% CI: −15.43 – −0.98) and relative left ventricular wall thickness (−0.04; 95% CI: −0.07 – 0.00) significantly decreased within the intervention group, reflecting amelioration of adverse remodelling, albeit without statistically significant intervention effect when compared to the control group.

Significant weight loss through bariatric surgery may improve left ventricular geometry in severely obese adolescents. These findings support the potential of bariatric surgery not only for reducing weight loss but also for improving cardiac health.

While around one-fifth of UK secondary school pupils exhibit clinically significant eating pathology, in-school mental health provision does not include interventions to address such eating pathology.

This preliminary qualitative study aimed to explore the views of staff, parents and pupils, on the idea of introducing a school-based brief cognitive behavioural therapy programme for non-underweight eating disorders.

31 pupils, 22 parents and 27 staff participated in 12 focus groups across four schools. The semi-structured interview guide covered topics around the practicalities of a potential eating disorders treatment programme, the acceptability of the intervention, and likelihood of future uptake.

Five over-arching themes and 12 subthemes emerged, reflecting the scale of eating and body image concerns, management limitations, and the importance of prioritising mental health over education. Advantages, challenges, considerations, and solutions were proposed for an in-school eating disorders treatment programme.

These qualitative data show that there is support for an appropriately implemented in-school delivery of brief, evidence-based treatment, demonstrating the potential scope of such an approach to support children and adolescents to receive early help with their eating problems and body image concerns.

Evidence on the effects of parental Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on adolescent mental health remains limited. This study investigates the associations between parental ACEs, children’s exposure to threat- and deprivation-related ACEs, and adolescent depression and anxiety using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

We conducted a secondary analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), a population-based longitudinal cohort study. Parental ACEs were retrospectively reported by caregivers. Children’s exposure to ACEs was assessed from ages 4–17 years and categorised as threat-related ACEs (e.g., bullying, hostile parenting, unsafe neighbourhoods, family violence) or deprivation-related ACEs (e.g., financial hardship, parental substance abuse, parental psychological distress, death of a family member, parental separation, parental legal problems). Depressive and anxiety symptoms were self-reported by adolescents at ages between 12 and 17 years. Modified Poisson regression models were used to examine the independent and combined associations of parental ACEs and children’s threat- and deprivation-related ACEs (assessed before ages 12, 14, and 16 years) with depression and anxiety outcomes, including tests for interaction effects.

The analysis included 3,956 children aged 12–13 years, 3,357 children aged 14–15 years, and 3,089 children aged 16–17 years. Males comprised 50.8–59.8% and females 40.2–49.2% across all ages. By the age of 17, 30.4% and 9.4% of the adolescents had depression and anxiety, respectively. Parental ACEs (≥2) were associated with increased depression risk at ages 12 to 13 years (RR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.10–1.84) and at 16–17 years (RR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.02–1.39). Exposure to ≥ 2 deprivation-related ACEs significantly increased the risk of depression across all ages, with relative risks ranging from 1.31 to 2.18. High threat-related ACEs (≥2) were associated with increased depression risk only at 12 to 13 years (RR = 2.01; 95% CI: 1.28–3.17). No significant interactions were observed.

The findings reinforce the ACEs model by showing that, at the population level, early identification of children exposed to early life deprivations rooted in financial crisis or familial adversities, combined with targeted interventions for both children and parents and supportive social policies, can reduce long-term mental health risks.

Emerging reports show that personal listening device usage causes vestibular impairment. This study aims to investigate the effect of personal listening device usage on vestibular impairment.

Subjects between 13 and 25 years were recruited. Each subject underwent a personal listening device usage questionnaire and quantification of sound exposure level, followed by a series of vestibular tests. Statistical analyses were performed to identify the association between personal listening device characteristics, sound exposure level and vestibular function.

A total of 131 participants were recruited, with a mean age of 20 ± 2.55 years. The mean duration of personal listening device usage per day was 5.53 ± 2.76 hours. Noise exposure from personal listening device usage was noted to cause more saccular damage in adolescents. A correlation was found between the preferred listening level, the 40-hour equivalent continuous exposure level (r = 0.406, p = 0.029) and the latency right p13 among adolescents.

Sound exposure levels among adolescents are higher than among young adults. Personal listening device usage resulted in saccular damage among adolescents.

Gender dysphoria is linked to various psychosocial challenges in adolescence, underscoring the need to identify and support youth experiencing gender-related distress. Although gender identity exists on a spectrum beyond the binary, no validated tool currently exists in Turkey that uses inclusive, gender-neutral language to assess it in adolescents.

This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Turkish adaptation of the Utrecht Gender Dysphoria Scale–Gender Spectrum (UGDS-GS) among clinical- and community-based adolescents.

A total of 240 participants aged 12–23 years were included. The validity of UGDS-GS was assessed through content validity and confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was measured using Cronbachʼs alpha and test–retest intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). A sociodemographic data form, UGDS, UGDS-GS, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and Youth Self-Report (YSR) were utilised.

Findings demonstrated strong content validity, with a content validity Index of 0.69, and robust construct validity, indicated by a comparative fit index of 0.993 and a root-mean-square error of approximation of 0.071 following the exclusion of three items. UGDS-GS effectively differentiated scores across demographic groups, showing significant variances based on assigned gender and age. The scale also exhibited excellent criterion validity, evidenced by an area under the curve of 0.947 in receiver operating characteristic analysis, with high sensitivity (80%) and specificity (95.9%) at an optimal cut-off value of 42.50. With a Cronbachʼs alpha of 0.935, UGDS-GS demonstrated strong internal consistency and substantial test–receiver operating characteristic retest reliability (ICC 0.884), alongside notable but weak correlations with several RSES subscales and low to moderate correlations with YSR scores.

These results affirm that tUGDS-GS is valuable and reliable in assessing gender dysphoria in Turkish adolescents. Further research is warranted to improve applicability in diverse contexts and populations.