Chronic sleep deprivation is a common, treatable condition among adolescents. Growing literature supports a myriad consequences that impact overall health, behavior, mood, and academic performance in this vulnerable age group during a time when there are rapid changes in physical development and emotional regulation. This article reviews the epidemiology and health effects of sleep deprivation in adolescents as well as common disorders leading to sleep loss and evidence to support treatment. Although a variety of important sleep disorders may disrupt quality of sleep in adolescents, such as obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and narcolepsy, this article will focus on common disorders that affect the quantity of sleep, such as poor sleep hygiene, circadian rhythm disorders, and insomnia.

Youth suicide is a national and global public health crisis. Pediatricians can use primary and secondary prevention strategies to intervene with youth before or after the onset of suicidal behaviors. Universal suicide risk screening programs can be used to identify youth in medical settings who may otherwise pass through the health care setting with undetected suicide risk. Pediatricians are uniquely positioned to help foster resilience in their young patients and equip families of at-risk youth with safety plans and lethal means safety counseling. Pediatricians on the frontlines of this critical public health crisis require education and training in detecting suicide risk, managing those who screen positive, and connecting their patients to much needed mental health interventions and treatments. Evidence-based suicide risk screening and assessment tools, paired with interventions, are feasible and potentially life-saving in the medical setting.

Adolescent use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has increased dramatically, with younger and nicotine-naive adolescents starting to use these devices and use them more frequently than combustible cigarettes. In emerging evidence, it is shown that e-cigarettes are not effective in helping adult smokers quit and that youth using e-cigarettes are at risk for becoming nicotine dependent and continuing to use as adults. Important gaps in our knowledge remain regarding the long-term health impact of e-cigarettes, effective strategies to prevent and reduce adolescent e-cigarette use, and the impact of provider screening and counseling to address this new method of nicotine use.

In response to the growing impact of the current opioid public health crisis in the United States on adolescents and young adults, pediatricians have an expanding role in identifying opioid use early, preventing escalation of risky use, reducing opioid-related harms, and delivering effective therapies. Research and expert consensus suggest the use of brief interventions focused on reducing risks associated with ongoing opioid use and using motivational interviewing strategies to engage youth in treatment. Because fatal opioid overdose remains a major cause of opioid-related mortality among youth, delivering overdose education as part of any visit in which a youth endorses opioid use is one evidence-based strategy to decrease the burden of opioid-related mortality. For youth that are injecting opioids, safe injection practices and linkage to needle or syringe exchanges should be considered to reduce complications from injection drug use. It is crucial that youth be offered treatment at the time of diagnosis of an opioid use disorder (OUD), including medications, behavioral interventions, and/or referral to mutual support groups. The 2 medications commonly used for office-based OUD treatment in adolescents are extended-release naltrexone (opioid antagonist) and buprenorphine (partial opioid agonist), although there is a significant treatment gap in prescribing these medications to youth, especially adolescents <18 years of age. Addiction is a pediatric disease that pediatricians and adolescent medicine physicians are uniquely poised to manage, given their expertise in longitudinal, preventive, and family- and patient-centered care. Growing evidence supports the need for integration of OUD treatment into primary care.

OM Sweden joined OM Ireland for outreach over the Easter holiday in Carlow town.

For Irish teens Nicole and Saoirse, interacting with their church’s Immersion student, Bree, led to an understanding of the gospel.

OM Australia shares about mission opportunities at Australia’s leading three-day music festival in Toowoomba, Queensland, over Easter.

Extreme Leadership Training camps create unity in Ukraine.

Church planting and Business 4 Transformation go hand-in-hand in Ukraine.

Through the "Lighthouse" soccer team, Maksim Shlikov is reaching out to young orphanage graduates looking for meaning and hope.

A team of dentists and volunteers recently visited an orphanage in the Odessa province to fix 75 young smiles.

Long-term follower of Jesus, Nikolay, stepped out in faith to help orphans in Ukraine, and partners with OM in this ministry to children.

A Fin24 user looks to an expert for help in improving his credit score by paying off his debt.

A Fin24 user asks whether saving is better when debt is paid off or not.

A Fin24 user wants to know whether paying off a car loan or credit card will make her credit score 'look better.'

A Fin24 user who was forced into early retirement is struggling to pay credit card debt amounting to over R109 000. An expert responds.

A Fin24 user urgently seeks guidance on how to pay off debt owing to the amount of R82 000. An expert responds with workable solutions.

OK, most of us will never be able to enjoy the first growths from Bordeaux, but you don't have to spend a grand on a bottle to realise that when it comes to cabernet and merlot blends, Bordeaux is still the region to beat.

A Thousand Moons

IT is a truth universally acknowledged – at least by its advocates – that all things inexorably advance the cause of independence.

A FROSTY morning and the sun is yet to rise sluggishly over the horizon. Outside, though, already snippets of chirping bird song ring out from the pitch blackness. In my mind’s eye, I imagine little groups huddled high among the branches of the trees. Waiting and watching.

Andy Lowndes, music detective for dementia charity Playlist for Life

Nirmal Purja, mountaineer

GREAT news. I think. Glasgow is a great place in which to be looking for love, with 44 per cent of the city single, according to an online dating company.Why does this matter? Flash back to Valentine’s Day. There I was, lying in a pool of poetical blood, having been shot in the heart with the killer question no single man over a certain age wants to hear: “How many Valentine’s cards did you get?” asked a friend.

THOSE last times.... we all of us have memories our minds keep running back to in these social distancing times. The last time we gathered, last time we swam together, the last drive to a beach. One of mine is the post-swim hot tub at the Scottish Winter Swimming Championships in the chilly waters of Loch Tay – around 30 of us crammed in there, many in fancy dress, some in swim make-up, a great, crowded bath of joy.

IT'S the day after May Day and perhaps you’re feeling you’ve missed out on a good, sweaty Scottish pagan spring ritual of the type done particularly well at Beltane on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill, though not in a year of quarantine. Never fear. There are still ways of channelling the fertility rites of spring, the chief one being, of course, the folk horror classic The Wicker Man. Put on a goat mask, get in touch with your inner Wicker – or even Wicca – and revel in a bit of self-isolation

IT’S not everyone who’s given the chance to design their own tartan so when the opportunity arose, Vixy Rae didn’t need to give it a second thought.

Ingrid Newkirk isn’t sure exactly how many times she has been arrested. “Definitely a few dozen,” she’ll say, if you ask. I’ve just done exactly that, so right now the British-born founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is running me through a sort of greatest hits of her law-baiting exploits and the jailtime they have brought her in the name of animal rights.

Joblessness now stands at the most since the Great Depression era of the 1930s after the coronavirus pandemic brought the US economy to a standstill.

State adviser says government was sympathetic to the economic difficulties caused by the on-going lockdown but growth in infections in areas such as the Western Cape are biggest risk to the faster reopening of the economy.

SA faces its gravest test in over 70 years, to rebuild an economy that was already in a protracted slump after the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, one could be forgiven for believing there's a wedge between the state's main actors tasked with the job of resurrecting a country that may see its jobless rate rise as high as 50%.

It’s been a nerve-wracking few years for the traditional auto industry. One Silicon Valley VC firm speculates on its future in an interview with Bloomberg.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that institutional investors in South Africa and across the globe are starting to take their ownership rights more seriously.

Partners of OM EAST distribute copies of My First Bible to Nenets children on the Yamal Peninsula in northern Arctic Russia.

OM EAST and a local partner prepare to send copies of the Right Choices Bible to the Nenets tribe on the Yamal Peninsula.

One week before Ramadan, 17 participants share God’s love with hundreds of Arab tourists in Zell am See, Austria.

Jesus came to find us, like the merchant looking for fine pearls.

On 26 June, students from Austria Training Centre’s first year completed training in church planting, evangelism and discipleship.

THE Murray window is closing but Tennis Scotland appear to be diving through it just in time. Failing to adequately capitalise on the ongoing successes of Andy and Jamie has been a long-time frustration of the family, with mum Judy vehement in her criticism of the governing bodies for their inertia.

ANDY MURRAY has had a bumpy ride over the past couple of years, undergoing hip surgery, staging a comeback which saw him win his first title in two years before another injury setback has seen him sidelined since the tail-end of last year.

THE LTA has today announced a multi-million pound package of additional funding and measures to support those involved in tennis in Britain through the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Andy Murray does not think getting the professional tennis circuit back up and running should be a priority any time soon.

We meet the Oleksandr Kadenko, the gold medal recipient in the 2010 UEFA Grassroots Day Awards for best leader.

UEFA Champions Festival Ambassador Graeme Le Saux discusses the importance of UEFA Grassroots Day.

We look at a coaching system which has produced a long line of talent.

We investigate what makes the Dutch club's youth system so special.

We investigate the system the Dutch use to unearth new talent.

WHILE almost every athlete has been affected by the global shutdown of sport, it is perhaps the old and the young who are feeling it the most.

As expected, the number of passengers at Berlin airports fell in January. Tegel and Schönefeld dealt with a total of 2,252,265 passengers, 6.9% fewer than in the same month last year.