VOA慢速英语 2008 1105a

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Children's mental health was the subject of two recent studies. One involved treatment of anxiety disorders¹, the other examined long-term effects of alcohol use in teenagers.

The first study involved about five hundred children in the United States, ages seven to seventeen. They had moderate to severe disorders involving worries and fears.

For treatment, one group received Zoloft, an antidepressant drug. Another group received cognitive² behavioral therapy, sometimes called the talking treatment. Therapists taught the children about anxiety and guided them through structured tasks to help them face their fears.

A third group received both the medicine and the therapy.

John Walkup at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Maryland was the lead author. He says the study clearly showed that combination treatment was the most effective. Eighty-one percent of the children treated with both medicine and cognitive behavioral therapy improved.

But Doctor Walkup says the medicine or therapy alone also showed good results. Sixty percent of the therapy-only group improved, as did fifty-five percent of the Zoloft-only group.

For comparison, a fourth group received a placebo³. The children took sugar pills thinking it was medicine. Twenty-four percent of them also improved.

The National Institute of Mental Health paid for the study. The New England Journal of Medicine published it.

The alcohol study appeared in the journal Psychological Science. The lead researcher was Candice Odgers of the University of California, Irvine. She used records from a major health study of one thousand people born in New Zealand in the early nineteen seventies.

She found that people who experiment with alcohol before they are fifteen are more likely to become addicted⁴ to alcohol or other drugs. This was true even in teens with no family history of drug dependence⁵. They are also more likely to have behavior problems, fail in school, commit crimes and get pregnant at a young age.

Just this week, a Rand Corporation study in the journal Pediatrics linked sexual content on television shows to teen pregnancy⁶. Girls and boys who watch a lot of it were twice as likely as others to be involved in a pregnancy over the following three years.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver⁷. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

3 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。

4 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

5 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

6 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

7 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。