Link Between Insomnia And Hypersomnia, Depression In Children ...

According to a study published in the January 1st issue of the journal SLEEP, sleep-disturbed children are more severely depressed and have more depressive symptoms and comorbid anxiety disorders compared with children without sleep disturbance.  To ensure the most effective care, parents of sleep-disturbed children are advised to first consult with the child's pediatrician, who may issue a referral to a sleep specialist for comprehensive testing and treatment.   The study, authored by Xianchen Liu, MD, PhD, and colleagues of the University of Pittsburgh, was conducted on 553 children with a depressive disorder.  Out of this study group, 72.7 percent had sleep disturbance, of which 53.5 percent had insomnia alone, nine percent had hypersomnia alone and 10.1 percent had both disturbances.  Depressed girls were more likely to have sleep disturbance than boys, but age had no significant effects.

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Five children rescued from Belfast house fire

The fire and rescue service has rescued five children from a house fire in County Antrim. The incident happened shortly after midnight last night, when the blaze broke out at a property in the Springfield Road area of west Belfast. It is understood that the children were staying with their grandmother who raised the alarm after being woken by a fire alarm. The five children and four adults who were in the house at the time were taken to hospital. A five-year-old girl is said to be in a serious condition in the intensive care unit in the Royal Victoria Hospital, while the other four children are said to be in a stable condition. William Laverty from the Fire and Rescue Service said that the blaze is understood to have been started accidentally. He said: "The two fathers of the children had rescued four of the children and attempted, unfortunately in vain, to get to the fifth child.

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Adults Living With Children Eat More Fat

Adults living with children eat more saturated fat -- the equivalent of nearly an entire pepperoni pizza each week -- than do adults who do not live with children, according to a University of Iowa and University of Michigan Health System study. The finding was based on data from the federal government's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. The UI-led study was made public today, and the paper will appear in the Jan. 4, 2007, online edition of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. Most family diet studies have examined how adults influence children's eating habits, but few studies have considered how children or their habits may be associated with adults' food intake, said Helena Laroche, M.D., an associate in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Iowa Roy J.

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