Doctors and parents alike are always concerned with adolescents’ diets, from sugar-laden sodas to nutritionally-deficient fast food. But could a perennial favorite—chocolate—actually be good for kids’ mental health? Some researchers have theorized that chocolate has antidepressant benefits, alleviates anxiety, and improves cognition.

Integrative psychiatrist Dr. Victoria Dunckley explains how good nutrition, exercise, and getting away from electronic screens can help prevent and combat childhood obesity.

The teen years are known as a time of increased suicide risk. Associated factors such as depression, social support, and anxiety were recently studied to understand their relationship to ideation, planning, and suicide attempts. Researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined how social anxiety is related to risk of suicidal ideation.

Abnormalities in the brains of autistic children can be traced back to the development of neurons in utero, according to a new study published in the March 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (Stoner R, N Engl J Med 2014; 370:1209–1219).

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Nonverbal learning disability (NLD) can present a diagnostic and treatment conundrum to the child psychiatrist, with children presenting with a number of symptoms and deficits that are common with other conditions.

Every day in the United States, about 650 babies are born that have been exposed to illicit drugs in the prenatal period (Keegan K et al, J Addict Dis 2010;29(2):175–191). The number would be even larger if we include women who continue to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and abuse prescription drugs during pregnancy.

Behavioral pediatrician Dr. Erik von Hahn explains how schools evaluate and treat kids for learning disabilities and how child psychiatrists can help in this process.

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric conditions in kids, and they are often predictive of future psychiatric problems. Researchers examined if effective treatment of anxiety disorders early on had positive long-term outcomes.

A group of researchers at Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital recently quantified the increased medical and educational costs that come with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).