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Michelle Trudeau
Contributing Correspondent, National Public Radio
Irvine, Calif., USA

TOPIC: Produce a series of radio stories on the psychological welfare of immigrant children and adolescents, with an emphasis on longitudinal studies that have tracked their social, emotional, and psychological development.

Children Grow Up Healthier in Enriched Foster Care
There are big, long-term health payoffs in mental and physical well-being when foster-care services to children are enhanced, a new study suggests.

Adopted Teens Face Higher Risk for ADHD
People have wondered for a long time whether children who were adopted in infancy are at increased risk for psychological problems. Now, the first study of its kind has found that most are psychologically healthy, though they're at "slightly increased risk" for behavioral problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or oppositional defiant disorder.

School, Study, SATs: No Wonder Teens Are Stressed
This is the season of college applications and high-stakes entrance exams. Tens of thousands of teenagers are pushing hard to do well.

Researchers Investigate Aggressive Students' Mental Health
Aggression and violence in schools is a persistent problem that teachers and communities face. One team of mental health professionals is testing whether they can provide a way of dealing with aggressive kids that helps these youngsters, and keeps schools safe.

Unique Memory Lets Woman Replay Life Like a Movie
Neurobiologist James McGaugh, one of the world's experts on human memory, says that a woman he calls AJ has a one-of-a-kind memory. In an interview with NPR, she talks about what life is like for someone who can remember things she's done and news events from almost every day of her life for the past 25 years (Part Two of Two Parts).

Woman's Long-Term Memory Astonishes Scientists
Neurobiologist James McGaugh is one of the world's leading experts on how human memory works. In the current issue of the journal Neurocase, McGaugh reports on a woman with the astonishing ability to clearly remember events that happened to her decades ago (Part One of Two Parts).

Study Finds Link Between Mother, Child Depression
Children whose mothers are depressed are themselves at increased risk for depression, anxiety disorder, or other mental-health problems during childhood. New research shows that treating the depression of mothers can significantly alleviate children's depression.

Biology of Suicide
What drives people to suicide? NPR's Michelle Trudeau reports that in laboratories around the country, neuroscientists are trying to find out. They're studying the brains of people who've committed suicide and comparing them with people who died suddenly.

Study: Mental Trauma Led to Illness in Civil War Troops
Mental trauma led to physical disease among American Civil War veterans, according to a study appearing in the current issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry magazine. Scientists found that younger and more traumatized soldiers had much higher rates of illness later in life. Michelle Trudeau reports on the study, and how the findings could apply to today's veterans.

Drug Shows Promise in Treating Gambling Addiction
A study in the February issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry indicates that a new drug, Nalmefene, may help reduce urges in pathological gamblers.

Studying a Mental Health Check-up for Sixth Graders
A report in the Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders describes a unique program that gives a complete mental-health checkup as kids enter middle school.

Mexican Immigrant Kids Have Good Mental Health
New research by the University of Texas at Austin indicates children of Mexican immigrants have surprisingly good mental health, despite the many obstacles they face. NPR contributing correspondent Michelle Trudeau reports on the findings of the study, which looked at kindergarten-age students across the United States.

Improving Mental Health Care in Teen Justice System
Each year, more than 1.5 million youth enter the juvenile justice system. Experts say a large percentage of these teenagers are mentally ill but rarely receive proper treatment. Some juvenile courts have been created to take teens with severe illnesses out of the mainstream juvenile justice system.

Study Backs Benefits of Preschool
The journal Developmental Psychology has just published new research suggesting that Oklahoma's pre-kindergarten program is a success at helping kids prepare for school. Oklahoma is one of the few states to offer preschool to every four-year-old.

As the computing power of cell phones increases, more and more sophisticated mobile apps are being developed for the mental health field. They're seen as a way to bridge periodic therapy sessions - a sort of 24-7 mobile therapist that can help with everything from quitting smoking to treating anxiety to detecting relapses in psychotic disorders.

Scientists define a suicide cluster as three or more suicides in a specific location that occur over a short period of time. On average, there are five suicide clusters each year in the United States, according to psychiatric epidemiologist Madelyn Gould at Columbia University in New York City.

In Las Vegas, the odds of dying by suicide are strikingly high - twice as high as in the rest of the country. And the neon city is a risk for residents and visitors alike, according to a study in the current issue of the journalSocial Science and Medicine.

Sending your child off to college can be an anxious time for many parents. But for parents of children with a mental illness or learning disability, the transition is especially challenging.