Toronto mayor to stay in power pending appeal of ouster

TORONTO (Reuters) – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can stay in power pending an appeal of a conflict of interest ruling that ordered him out of his job as leader of Canada’s biggest city, a court ruled on Wednesday.

Madam Justice Gladys Pardu of the Ontario Divisional Court suspended a previous court ruling that said Ford should be ousted. Ford’s appeal of that ruling is set to be heard on January 7, but a decision on the appeal could take months.

Justice Pardu stressed that if she had not suspended the ruling, Ford would have been out of office by next week. “Significant uncertainty would result and needless expenses may be incurred if a by-election is called,” she said.

If Ford wins his appeal, he will get to keep his job until his term ends at the end of 2014. If he loses, the city council will either appoint a successor or call a special election, in which Ford is likely to run again.

“I can’t wait for the appeal, and I’m going to carry on doing what the people elected me to do,” Ford told reporters at City Hall following the decision.

Ford, a larger-than-life character who took power on a promise to “stop the gravy train” at City Hall, has argued that he did nothing wrong when he voted to overturn an order that he repay money that lobbyists had given to a charity he runs.

Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland disagreed, ruling last week that Ford acted with “willful blindness” in the case, and must leave office by December 10.

Ford was elected mayor in a landslide in 2010, but slashing costs without cutting services proved harder than he expected, and his popularity has fallen steeply.

He grabbed unwelcome headlines for reading while driving on a city expressway, for calling the police when a comedian tried to film part of a popular TV show outside his home, and after reports that city resources were used to help administer the high-school football team he coaches.

The conflict-of-interest drama began in 2010 when Ford, then a city councillor, used government letterhead to solicit donations for the football charity created in his name for underprivileged children.

Toronto’s integrity commissioner ordered Ford to repay the C$ 3,150 ($ 3,173) the charity received from lobbyists and companies that do business with the city.

Ford refused to repay the money, and in February 2012 he took part in a city council debate on the matter and then voted to remove the sanctions against him – despite being warned by the council speaker that voting would break the rules.

He pleaded not guilty in September, stating that he believed there was no conflict of interest as there was no financial benefit for the city. The judge dismissed that argument.

In a rare apology after last week’s court ruling, he said the matter began “because I love to help kids play football”.

Ford faces separate charges in a C$ 6 million libel case about remarks he made about corruption at City Hall, and is being audited for his campaign finances. The penalty in the audit case could also include removal from office.

(Reporting by Claire Sibonney; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Russ Blinch, Nick Zieminski; and Peter Galloway)

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Vitamin D, calcium disappoint in dementia study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Vitamin D and calcium supplements taken together in low doses offered no protection against dementia in a large U.S. study of older women, but scientists are still holding out hope for vitamin D alone.

Past research has suggested that vitamin D might protect against memory loss and overall functional decline in the aging brain. But more than 2,000 women in the new study who took 400 international units of vitamin D and 1,000 mg of calcium daily for an average of eight years developed cognitive impairments at the same rates as a comparison group on placebo pills.

During the many years that study was ongoing, however, experts gained a better understanding of how calcium and vitamin D might have conflicting effects, so the combination of the two might explain the disappointing results, the study’s authors say.

“I think the definitive study will just look at the effects of vitamin D,” said lead author Dr. Rebecca Rossom, from HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research, a nonprofit arm of a health maintenance organization (HMO) based in Minneapolis.

But this study is important because it “gets closer to how women take vitamin D now,” as a way build bone density, Rossom added.

Her team’s report, which is published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, is also the first to use the rigorous approach known as a randomized, double-blind trial with a placebo group to look at the possible effects of vitamin D and calcium on cognitive decline.

Rossom and her colleagues analyzed data on 4,100 women who were simultaneously enrolled in two trials, including the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Calcium and Vitamin D trial that ended in 2005, and a WHI memory study.

All of the women, who averaged 71 years old at the outset of the studies, were also free of cognitive problems to start.

Half of the women were assigned to take the supplements and the rest were given identical looking dummy pills.

Ultimately, about 100 women, or five percent, in each group developed mild cognitive impairment – a term that can include everything from memory trouble to the serious dementia found in Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers note that since the study ended, guidelines on vitamin and mineral intakes have changed. Currently the U.S. Institute of Medicine suggests getting 600 IUs per day of vitamin D for men and women up to age 70, and 800 IUs for older people. Suggested calcium amounts range from 700 mg to 1,300 mg per day, based on age, with an upper limit of 3000 mg. In both cases, intake recommendations cover both food and supplement sources.

So, the authors point out, their findings are specific only to the assigned amounts of vitamin D and calcium taken by women in the study – which are relatively low by today’s standards.

More than 16 million Americans suffer from some form of cognitive impairment, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the problem is expected to grow as more baby boomers age. Vitamin D might still be viewed as potentially offering a measure of protection against a condition with no formal treatment, if its effects can be decisively demonstrated.

“The sum of information shows conflicting evidence,” said Katherine Tucker of Northeastern University, who was not involved in the current study.

“Some recent studies suggest that too much calcium could have negative effects. The preponderance of evidence shows that vitamin D is protective, but some studies have shown no effect,” she told Reuters Health.

But, Tucker said, “This study by no means closes the door on the need for more research to clarify vitamin D’s effects.”

Rossom’s team acknowledges their study’s limitations. In addition to the doses of supplements in the trial, the results are strictly limited to women, who were mostly white. Also, older age is a significant risk factor for dementia and the study participants, by comparison, were relatively young.

“The next step is to test a higher dose of vitamin D,” said study coauthor JoAnn Manson of Harvard Medical School. “Higher doses will bring a study population to an achieved blood level that has been associated with reduced risk of cognitive decline in (past) studies.”

Manson is currently leading a large clinical trial designed primarily to look at the effects of vitamin D and omega-3′s on cancer risk, but the study will also monitor cognitive function. Results are expected in 2017.

A French study slated to finish next year is examining the cognitive effects of vitamin D versus a placebo in patients who already have Alzheimer’s disease.

“The bottom line is that we still just don’t know,” Tucker told Reuters Health. “We’re in the process of gathering more scientific evidence and will need to continue to do so until more studies point in a certain direction.”

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/VCIs9H Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, online November 23, 2012.

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mtvU honors Frank Ocean, wounded Pakistani teen

NEW YORK (AP) — The mtvU network is honoring a rap superstar who detailed his love for another man and a Pakistani girl shot for her education advocacy as its Man and Woman of the Year.

Frank Ocean, who earned six Grammy nominations Wednesday, published a letter online about his first love, a man, just as his “channel ORANGE” disc was being released. MtvU on Thursday called it “an incredibly brave move for an artist on the verge of superstardom.”

Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai (mah-LAH’-lah YOO’-suf-ZAY’) blogged about her support of education for girls in Pakistan. For that, Taliban militants stormed her school bus and shot her in the head and neck, but she survived.

The mtvU network is geared toward college students and is seen on more than 750 campuses.

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Death toll from Philippine typhoon nears 300

NEW BATAAN, Philippines (AP) — Stunned parents searching for missing children examined a row of mud-stained bodies covered with banana leaves while survivors dried their soaked belongings on roadsides Wednesday, a day after a powerful typhoon killed nearly 300 people in the southern Philippines.

Officials fear more bodies may be found as rescuers reach hard-hit areas that were isolated by landslides, floods and downed communications.

At least 151 people died in the worst-hit province of Compostela Valley when Typhoon Bopha lashed the region Tuesday, including 78 villagers and soldiers who perished in a flash flood that swamped two emergency shelters and a military camp, provincial spokeswoman Fe Maestre said.

Disaster-response agencies reported 284 dead in the region and 14 fatalities elsewhere from the typhoon, one of the strongest to hit the country this year.

About 80 people survived the deluge in New Bataan with injuries, and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who visited the town, said 319 others remained missing.

“These were whole families among the registered missing,” Roxas told the ABS-CBN TV network. “Entire families may have been washed away.”

The farming town of 45,000 people was a muddy wasteland of collapsed houses and coconut and banana trees felled by Bopha’s ferocious winds.

Bodies of victims were laid on the ground for viewing by people searching for missing relatives. Some were badly mangled after being dragged by raging flood waters over rocks and other debris. A man sprayed insecticide on the remains to keep away swarms of flies.

A father wept when he found the body of his child after lifting a plastic cover. A mother, meanwhile, went away in tears, unable to find her missing children. “I have three children,” she said repeatedly, flashing three fingers before a TV cameraman.

Two men carried the mud-caked body of an unidentified girl that was covered with coconut leaves on a makeshift stretcher made from a blanket and wooden poles.

Dionisia Requinto, 43, felt lucky to have survived with her husband and their eight children after swirling flood waters surrounded their home. She said they escaped and made their way up a hill to safety, bracing themselves against boulders and fallen trees as they climbed.

“The water rose so fast,” she told AP. “It was horrible. I thought it was going to be our end.”

In nearby Davao Oriental, the coastal province first struck by the typhoon as it blew from the Pacific Ocean, at least 115 people perished, mostly in three towns that were so battered that it was hard to find any buildings with roofs remaining, provincial officer Freddie Bendulo and other officials said.

“We had a problem where to take the evacuees. All the evacuation centers have lost their roofs,” Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies issued an urgent appeal for $ 4.8 million to help people directly affected by the typhoon.

The sun was shining brightly for most of the day Wednesday, prompting residents to lay their soaked clothes, books and other belongings out on roadsides to dry and revealing the extent of the damage to farmland. Thousands of banana trees in one Compostela Valley plantation were toppled by the wind, the young bananas still wrapped in blue plastic covers.

But as night fell, however, rain started pouring again over New Bataan, triggering panic among some residents who feared a repeat of the previous day’s flash floods. Some carried whatever belongings they could as they hurried to nearby towns or higher ground.

After slamming into Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley, Bopha roared quickly across the southern Mindanao and central regions, knocking out power in two entire provinces, triggering landslides and leaving houses and plantations damaged. More than 170,000 fled to evacuation centers.

As of Wednesday evening, the typhoon was over the South China Sea west of Palawan province. It was blowing northwestward and could be headed to Vietnam or southern China, according to government forecasters.

The deaths came despite efforts by President Benigno Aquino III’s government to force residents out of high-risk communities as the typhoon approached.

Some 20 typhoons and storms lash the northern and central Philippines each year, but they rarely hit the vast southern Mindanao region where sprawling export banana plantations have been planted over the decades because it seldom experiences strong winds that could blow down the trees.

A rare storm in the south last December killed more than 1,200 people and left many more homeless.

The United States extended its condolences and offered to help its Asian ally deal with the typhoon’s devastation. It praised government efforts to minimize the deaths and damage.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Gomez, Teresa Cerojano and Oliver Teves in Manila contributed to this report.

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With Teva at crossroads, new CEO set to unveil vision

NEW YORK/TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries‘ new Chief Executive Jeremy Levin has promised investors it will be a very different company going forward. Next week he has to prove it.

Levin’s ability to paint a bright future for the world’s biggest maker of generic drugs at a meeting with investors and analysts on December 11 in New York became a bit more difficult last week, when Teva issued a 2013 earnings forecast that fell short of Wall Street estimates.

Levin, a big pharma veteran, is expected to shift Teva’s focus to branded drugs even as its most important such product, top-selling multiple sclerosis treatment Copaxone, faces new competition and a 2015 patent expiration. Investors are also hoping for a meaningful boost to the annual dividend while new management works to jumpstart a stagnant share performance.

“I’ve made a lot of money in Teva and I’ve seen this company wither in front of my eyes,” said Dan Hunt, a co-portfolio manager for RCM Capital Management’s Wellness Fund. Hunt’s fund no longer includes Teva shares, but RCM has small Teva holdings.

“The most important signal (shareholders) need to hear on the record from Levin is ‘whatever it takes I will protect you’,” Hunt said, adding that Teva has not delivered for its shareholders in years.

Teva’s U.S. shares are up about 2 percent in 2012 after falling 22.6 percent in 2011. They are off 35 percent from a 2010 peak at about $ 64. Shareholders of smaller Teva rivals Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc and Mylan Inc have fared far better with Watson up about 45 percent this year and Mylan shares up about 27 percent over the same period.

Levin has taken some preemptive steps to placate investors ahead of the meeting by announcing that the company plans to cut $ 1.5 billion to $ 2 billion in costs over the next five years, streamline operations and discontinue some research programs.

Morgan Stanley estimated that Copaxone sales account for 58 percent of Teva’s projected 2013 earnings. Levin will have to reveal how he plans to make up for the anticipated decline in Copaxone revenue beyond cost-cutting efforts.

Generic drugs accounted for 56 percent of Teva’s revenue last year, but the company faces obstacles to generic growth in the United States, the world’s largest market.

Following a wave of major patent expirations, the number of multibillion-dollar drugs going generic will diminish after the next couple of years. And new generic drugs are facing competition sooner along with faster price declines. Generic drugs are also facing considerable price pressure in Europe.

SMALL ACQUISITIONS

South African-born Levin, a former senior vice president for strategy at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, took over as CEO of Israel’s biggest company in May, replacing Shlomo Yanai.

In five years at the helm, Yanai engineered a number of large acquisitions, including last year’s $ 6.5 billion purchase of U.S. drugmaker Cephalon, which has been viewed by some analysts as a disappointment. The company last month took a $ 481 million impairment charge related to the Cephalon deal.

Levin last week signaled a desire for more targeted acquisitions focused on Teva’s core areas of expertise, such as central nervous system disorders and respiratory diseases.

He has begun to whittle away at non-core businesses, selling Teva’s U.S. animal health unit to Bayer for up to $ 145 million. Investors said Teva needs to improve production efficiency and downsize or close some of its plants.

Levin, who implemented at Bristol-Myers a series of deals and alliances with small and large companies, has been credited with helping to guide Bristol through its enormous patent cliff as the blood clot preventer Plavix, which had been the world’s second biggest selling prescription medicine, lost exclusivity.

“The key is smart deals and getting an estimate of what a reasonable growth rate is going forward,” said Robert Caravella, equity research analyst for Victory Capital Management, which holds about $ 9 million in Teva convertible bonds.

“The biggest issue is there’s not an understanding of where revenue and earnings are going to go and how we’re going to get to that point,” he said.

BIGGER DIVIDEND?

Shareholders would also like to see Teva raise its dividend, which provides only a 2.5 percent return on the stock, below the industry average of about 4 percent. Alternatively, the company may decide to increase shareholder returns by boosting its $ 3 billion share buyback.

Steven Tepper, an analyst at brokerage Harel Finance, said Levin must demonstrate how Teva can again become a growth company or that it will be a value investment going forward through a significant dividend increase. “This plan will have to convince investors it’s making that move,” Tepper said.

RCM Capital’s Hunt said Levin must present “a strong, formed, clear strategic vision” of where the company is headed.

The question is whether it will be enough to convince disenchanted investors such as Stewart Capital, which has more than $ 1 billion in assets under management but sold its Teva holdings shortly after Levin took over.

Matthew DiFilippo, chief portfolio strategist for Stewart, was skeptical that one individual could effect the change necessary to transform Teva back into an industry darling. “So while we recognized his talents, we also recognized the challenges they face and we sold,” he said.

A lot of money remains on the sidelines waiting for what Levin has to say, said Ori Hershkovitz, managing partner at Israel-based pharmaceutical hedge fund Sphera. Levin needs to say he is committed to replenishing Teva’s branded pipeline and will do whatever it takes to replace those lost sales by 2016, Hershkovitz said, and he must “make the market believe it”.

(Additional reporting by Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

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Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck dead at 91

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, whose choice of novel rhythms, classical structures and brilliant sidemen made him a towering figure in modern jazz, has died at the age of 91, his longtime manager and producer Russell Gloyd said on Wednesday.

Brubeck died of heart failure on Wednesday morning after he fell ill on his way to a regular medical exam at Norwalk Hospital, in Norwalk, Conn., a day short of his 92nd birthday, Gloyd said.

His Dave Brubeck Quartet put out one of the best selling jazz songs of all time: “Take Five,” composed by alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. Like many of the group’s works, it had an unusual beat — 5/4 time as opposed to the usual 4/4.

“We play it differently every time we play it,” Brubeck told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2005. “So I never get tired of playing it. That’s the beauty of jazz.”

“Take Five” was the first million-selling jazz single.

Dressed in a suit and horn-rimmed glasses and living a clean-cut lifestyle in the 1950s, Brubeck did not fit the stereotype of a hipster jazzman and his music was not nearly as brooding as that coming from East Coast be-bop players.

Despite his innovative approach, some critics interpreted Brubeck’s popularity as a sign of un-coolness, but his fans were undeterred.

Brubeck was born in Concord, California, on December 6, 1920. His father was a rancher and as a teenager Brubeck was a skilled cowboy. But his mother, a music teacher who had five pianos in the house, saw that he took up piano at age 5.

At the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California, he planned to be a veterinarian, but within a year he was majoring in music and playing jazz in nightclubs.

“After my first year in veterinary pre-med I switched to the music department … and that was at the advice of my zoology teacher,” Brubeck said in a Reuters interview. “He said ‘Brubeck, your mind is not here, with these frogs and formaldehyde. Your mind is across the lawn at the conservatory. Will you please go over there.’”

Brubeck later met the co-director of a weekly campus radio show, Iola Marie Whitlock, and they eventually married.

After graduation, Brubeck studied under French composer Darius Milhaud and played in a U.S. Army jazz band during World War Two.

In the late 1940s, he moved to the San Francisco Bay area, where he headed an experimental jazz octet. He formed a trio in 1950 and the following year expanded to a quartet with Desmond, who he had known since the war.

Brubeck injected classical counterpoint, atonal harmonies and modern dissonance into his music, hinting at composers such as Debussy, Bartok, Stravinsky and Bach.

The group built an enduring fan base by taking its subdued bluesy brand of classically influenced jazz to colleges.

As a leading figure in the West Coast jazz scene, which also included Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Brubeck was featured in a Time magazine cover story in 1954. Some critics and black musicians, who felt jazz was a central part of black culture, resented the story about the prominence of a white artist.

In the article Brubeck said Milhaud had told him “if I didn’t stick to jazz, I’d be working out of my own field and not taking advantage of my American heritage.”

Brubeck disbanded the quartet in 1967 after nearly 17 years to concentrate on composing. He wrote several choral works, all religiously influenced.

He later began performing jazz regularly again and appeared with his sons, Darius, a composer and pianist; Chris, who played electric bass and trombone; and drummer Danny. They were billed as Two Generations of Brubeck.

In February 1989 Brubeck, who had a history of heart problems, underwent triple-bypass surgery but kept playing. Well into his 80s, he still put on some 80 shows a year. He had a pacemaker implanted in October 2010.

Actor-director Clint Eastwood, a jazz fan, announced plans to make a documentary on Brubeck in 2007. Eastwood also was named chairman of the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific, designated as the home of his papers, private recordings and other memorabilia.

Brubeck and his wife, who also was his agent and lyricist, had two other sons, Matthew, a cellist, and Michael, and a daughter, Catherine. The couple lived in Wilton, Connecticut.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

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White House preps Plan B if debt talks fail

White House press secretary Jay Carney (Charles Dharapak/AP)President Barack Obama's budget office is preparing for the possibility that "fiscal cliff" talks will fail, triggering painful automatic cuts to domestic and defense programs that he and his Republican foes officially want to avoid. White House press secretary Jay Carney described the planning as an abundance of caution, not pessimism about the seemingly stalled negotiations.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget this week "issued a request to federal agencies" for information needed to finalize calculations on the spending cuts required under what is technically known as "sequestration," Carney told reporters at his daily briefing. OMB is "acting responsibly," he added.

"The administration remains focused on reaching agreement, as we've been discussing, on a balanced deficit-reduction plan that avoids sequestration" he said. "This action should not be read … as a change in the administration's commitment to reach an agreement and avoid sequestration."Leaders of both parties have pledged to work together in the coming weeks, and we are confident, as I just said, that we can reach an agreement. However, with less than one month left before a potential sequestration order would have to be issued, the Office of Management and Budget must take certain steps to ensure the administration is ready to issue such an order should Congress fail to act."

Carney's comments came as talks on the fiscal cliff—a series of tax hikes and government spending cuts that could plunge the economy into a new recession—seemed to be making no headway. Obama and congressional Republicans have each put a proposal on the table but do not appear to be actively involved in negotiating a compromise.

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WestJet embraces tech to woo business travelers

TORONTO (Reuters) – WestJet Airlines Ltd will use technological innovation, including a new Internet ticket booking system, to help it transform from a no-frills carrier to a lower-cost full-service airline courting lucrative corporate travelers, its chief executive said on Monday.

Canada’s second-biggest airline plans to launch a series of technology systems, most notably the new online booking engine, which will sell three tiers of tickets, in the next two months.

“Companies evolve or they die,” Chief Executive Gregg Saretsky told Reuters in a phone interview from the company’s Calgary head office.

“We’re 16 and going on 17 years old and we can’t stay just as we were 17 years ago. The world has changed. And we are changing to be more relevant for a broader segment of guests.”

The new Internet booking system, which WestJet hopes to launch in late January, will sell economy, mid-tier and premium tickets. That is a major shift from its current system, which sells only the lowest-priced ticket available.

Economy tickets under the new system will continue to sell the lowest available fare, but the cancellation fee for them will jump to C$ 75 ($ 75.48) from C$ 50. Mid-tier tickets will have a C$ 50 cancellation fee.

Premium tickets, unavailable until late March when WestJet finishes reconfiguring its 100 Boeing 737 planes to allow more leg room, will include priority screening and boarding, free cancellations and flexibility on ticket changes.

Pricing for those tickets, which may include free meals and drinks and an extra baggage allowance, has not yet been determined. Fares will be well below half the price for business class at WestJet’s bigger competitor, Air Canada, Saretsky said.

“It’s time for us to be more serious with respect to going after business travelers because frankly, they’re the ones who are booking last-minute and are happy to pay for the conveniences,” Saretsky said.

WestJet will launch its premium economy service with 24 seats per plane, but will consider expansion if it proves “wildly successful,” he added.

POISED FOR CHANGE

WestJet, which has spent about C$ 40 million over the past two years on technology projects, is poised for major changes in 2013 as it readies to launch a new regional airline, Encore.

Saretsky hopes that WestJet’s switch in coming weeks to a new Internet phone system will allow ticket reservation agents to work from home and help make room for Encore staff.

Some 750 reservation agents work at WestJet’s Calgary offices, which house about 2,400 staff. Space will be needed for Encore employees over the next 18 months while their office, hangars and maintenance stores are constructed at the WestJet campus.

Encore will be launch in the second half of 2013, “probably closer to July than December,” Saretsky said, with seven Bombardier Q400 planes.

While WestJet won’t announce Encore’s schedule until Jan 21, the carrier will initially serve only “a handful” of new cities, with ticket prices up to 50 percent below Air Canada’s, he added.

Over the next two months, WestJet will also roll out a guest notification system that alerts travelers via email about their flights, allowing them to check in remotely.

Such self-service technology will be critical as WestJet faces increasing labor costs, Saretsky said.

Wage and benefit costs, which represent about a third of operating costs, have climbed 50 percent since WestJet was founded in 1996.

“You can see that creates a little bit of drag on earnings,” Saretsky said. “We’ve got to find ways of reducing our component costs.”

If WestJet can increase self service options for travelers, that could limit the need for new employees, Saretsky said. Management also wants to improve attendance management, so that fewer employees book off sick around long weekends, and more quickly clean and process planes between flights, he said.

(Reporting By Susan Taylor; Editing by Peter Galloway)

(This story was corrected to show that WestJet is replacing its Internet booking engine, not entire reservation system, in the first and second paragraphs)

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China goes crazy for iPhone 5: Preorders hit 100,000 units in under 24 hours

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After parent’s cancer death, one in five kids self-injure

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – One in five teens who lost one of their parents to cancer cut or burn themselves, compared to one in ten teens with two living parents, according to a new Swedish study.

“We were very surprised to find that so many did it,” said lead researcher Tove Grenklo, a behavioral scientist at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

Cutting and burning is thought to be how some troubled teens express their emotions, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Those teens may hurt themselves if they can’t talk about their feelings, are upset or have low self esteem.

Earlier this year, a study found that children start harming themselves as early as third grade. (see Reuters Health article of June 11, 2012. http://reut.rs/Kveo8v)

The study’s researchers write in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine that past research showed children with one dead parent are already more likely to have – among other things – psychiatric problems, depression, drug and alcohol abuse and anxiety.

Grenklo and her colleagues wanted to see if they were also more likely to hurt themselves.

For the study, they used Sweden’s national death databases to find and survey teens who lost one of their parents to cancer between 2000 and 2003, when they were between 13 and 16.

They then found teens who still had two living parents for a comparison group.

Of the 851 teens who lost a parent, 622 returned their survey, as did 330 of the 451 teens in the comparison group.

Overall, about 20 percent of the teens with only one surviving parent said they hurt themselves, compared to about 10 percent of teens with both parents living.

‘WE SHOULD TALK WITH EACH OTHER’

“This study is one of the first to establish that (losing a parent to cancer) might be a unique risk factor for this behavior,” said Stephen Lewis, who was not involved with the new study but has studied self-injury at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

Lewis added that the study’s findings seem to be in line with other estimates of how many teens injure themselves.

The researchers say teens may be driven to self-injure after their parents’ deaths by an increased sense of emotional distress and numbness.

Another possible explanation for the increase is that the teens lost a caretaker who would notice their emotional suffering and prevent self-injury, they add.

As for prevention, both Grenklo and Lewis emphasized communication.

“I’m a strong believer that we should talk with each other,” said Grenklo. “Children need to know the facts of what happened and why. And that it’s OK to be sad and talk about the diseased parent.”

“We know one of the reasons people self injure is that they use injuring as a way to release their emotions,” said Lewis, who added that it’s important for parents, family members and teachers to know how to talk about self-injury and how to prevent it.

Lewis said information on preventing and handling self injury can be found at SIOutreach.org – a Web site where he is co-director.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/TLILN8 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, online December 3, 2012.

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