TUESDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) -- Too much time in front of computers or televisions increases the likelihood that teens will have poor relationships with their parents and peers, a new study suggests.

The researchers looked at 3,043 New Zealand teens, aged 14 to 15, who provided details about how they spent their free time and how close they were with other people.

The more time the teens spent watching TV or using a computer, the more likely they were to report having difficulty forming a relationship with or an emotional bond to their parents. The likelihood of having what the researchers called "low attachment" to parents increased 4 percent for every hour spent watching TV and 5 percent for every hour spent using a computer.

Teens who spent more time doing homework or reading had a higher level of attachment to their parents, the study authors noted in their report published in the March issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The researchers at the University of Otago in Dunedin also analyzed interview responses collected from 976 kids, aged 15, in 1987 and 1988. For every additional hour of TV that they watched, the teens had a 13 percent increased risk of low attachment to their parents and a 24 percent increased risk of low attachment to peers.

There are a number of possible reasons why too much screen time may affect teens' relationships with family and peers, the study authors noted. For example, teens who have TVs in their bedroom spend more time watching TV and may share fewer meals with their family.

"However, it is also possible that adolescents with poor attachment relationships with immediate friends and family use screen-based activities to facilitate new attachment figures such as online friendships or parasocial relationships with television characters or personalities," wrote Rosalina Richards and colleagues.

"Given the importance of attachment to parents and peers in adolescent health and development, concern about high levels of screen time among adolescents is warranted," the researchers concluded. "With the rapid advance of screen-based options for entertainment, communication and education, ongoing research is needed to monitor the effect that these technologies have on social development and psychological and physical well-being among adolescents."

More information

The Nemours Foundation offers tips for positive parenting  .

MONDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Women who experience depression during pregnancy may have another treatment option, new research suggests.

The study found that women treated with depression-specific acupuncture had a 63 percent response rate compared to a 44 percent response rate in women treated with control acupuncture or massage.

"We tested acupuncture as a standalone treatment, and the results are very positive," said study author Rachel Manber, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine Sleep Medicine Center in Redwood City, Calif. But, she added, because this is the first study of its kind, and the acupuncture protocol used was specifically designed for this study, "you always need replication of the findings."

Dr. Shari Lusskin, director of reproductive psychiatry at the New York University Langone Medical Center, echoed that sentiment. "It's encouraging to see alternative treatments being studied in a scientific manner, and this study should generate further studies. It needs to be replicated on a larger scale," she noted.

"This is one treatment, and perhaps it will become another possible treatment tool in our therapeutic toolbox," said Lusskin. But, she cautioned that "acupuncture is not a substitute for the appropriate use of antidepressant therapy especially in women with a prior history of response to antidepressants."

As many as 20 percent of women may experience depression during pregnancy, according to the March of Dimes. Symptoms include sad, hopeless feelings that persist, generally for more than two weeks, Lusskin said. Women may also experience severe anxiety or feel disconnected from the baby. And, she cautioned, suicidal thoughts are never normal and are a sign that you should seek help.

Many women are cautious about using medications during pregnancy, reports the study. Interpersonal psychotherapy is an option for women who are depressed during pregnancy, but this type of therapy isn't always available, according to the study.

For the study, Manber and her colleagues recruited 150 pregnant women who were diagnosed with a major depressive disorder. All were between 12 and 30 weeks of gestation.

The women were randomly assigned to one of three groups: depression-specific acupuncture (52 women), control acupuncture (49 women) or massage (49 women). The depression-specific protocol was designed just for this study, and the control acupuncture was specifically designed to avoid using acupuncture needles in any areas known to affect depression.

The treatments lasted for eight weeks. Women received treatment twice a week for the first four weeks, and then once a week for the next four weeks. The treatments lasted an average of 25 minutes.

The researchers found a 63 percent response rate in women who received the depression-specific acupuncture, while the response rate was 44.3 percent in the control acupuncture and massage groups. A response rate was defined as a 50 percent reduction in depression symptoms, Manber said.

Results of the study are scheduled to be published in the March issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

"We found our acupuncture protocol was helpful, but that does not mean that any acupuncture for depression treatment will be effective. The quality of what you get can differ from one practitioner to another," said Manber.

"Our goal is always to find treatments that have the maximum benefits and minimum risk," said Lusskin. "Many women think it's safer for the baby to go off antidepressants, but there's a real risk to the baby for untreated depression in pregnancy. And, we have enough safety data about antidepressant use in pregnancy that we can make informed choices about managing treatment during pregnancy."

The bottom line, she said, is to talk with your doctor to find the right combination of treatments that can help you. "Depression is not a one-size-fits-all illness, and treatment won't be one-size-fits-all either. If acupuncture ends up being helpful for you, that's great, but make sure you're treated into remission."

More information

To learn more about depression during and after pregnancy, visit the National Women's Health Information Center.

FRIDAY, Feb. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Looking for someone to celebrate next Valentine's Day with? New research suggests you'll gain extra points with prospective mates if you give of yourself to others in activities like volunteering.

When it comes to romance, "being generous can pay off," said study author Pat Barclay, an assistant professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, who wrote the study while at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

The study found that both men and women were more attracted to an altruistic, giving person when seeking out a long-term relationship.

Barclay, who performed the research at Canada's McMaster University, asked 150 women and 155 men to view photos and profiles of people of the opposite sex. The participants were then asked to rank how attractive the people were and disclose how willing they'd be to have either a short- or long-term relationship with them.

In some cases, Barclay added information to the profiles that suggested a person might be generous and altruistic. A profile might say, for instance, that the person volunteered at a local food bank.

The study findings appear in the February issue of the British Journal of Psychology.

"We found that the addition of generosity to a person's profile will increase their attractiveness for relationships, in particular long-term relationships," Barclay said.

There was a gender divide when it came to more casual affairs, however. "For short-term dates, women were attracted to the generous guys, but men had no preference regarding generosity," Barclay said. "For a one-night stand, men actually preferred neutral, non-generous women over the generous. They had an aversion to generosity."

Why? Barclay speculated that it may have to do with men thinking they couldn't attract a more generous woman or assuming such a woman wouldn't sleep with them.

In general, he said, "generosity can signal something about the person to both males and females. But women have had to worry more about guys doing the mate-them-and-dash kind of routine. They'd be slightly more concerned with character than men."

It's hard to quantify exactly how much of a difference generosity/altruism made in mate selection, Barclay said, although it might bump a person from five points to 5.5 on a 10-point attractiveness scale. "It's not going to turn a five into an eight, but it can certainly make a difference in competition with other people who are about the same level."

Why does all this matter? In the bigger picture, the research could give scientists some insight into evolution of humans. The findings add "to what we know about sexual selection in human behavior: traits that have evolved in one specific sex for the purposes of luring the other. These results suggest that altruism may very well be one of those traits that has been either evolved for, or adapted to, serve the purposes of luring a good mate," said Stan Treger, a psychology graduate student at Illinois State University.

Now to the nitty-gritty: Should you volunteer at the soup kitchen in order to attract a mate? Maybe, but don't flaunt it, Barclay warned.

"If somebody is always saying, 'Look, I'm generous, I'm really generous,'" he said, "people will be a little skeptical about why you're constantly mentioning that."

More information

There's more on altruism at Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education  .

TUESDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) -- A new vaccine prevents tuberculosis in people with HIV, a new study shows.

Phase III trials of 2,000 HIV-infected people in Tanzania found that the mycobacterium vaccae (MV) vaccine reduced the rate of definite tuberculosis (TB) by 39 percent. The findings have been published online in the journal AIDS.

TB is the most common cause of death among people in developing countries who have HIV/AIDS, and the results of the clinical trials are a "significant milestone," according to principal investigator Dr. Ford von Reyn, director of the DarDar International Programs for the infectious disease and international health section at Dartmouth Medical School, in Hanover, N.H.

"Since development of a new vaccine against tuberculosis is a major international health priority, especially for patients with HIV infection, we and our Tanzanian collaborators are very encouraged by the results," von Reyn said in a news release from the journal's publisher.

The next step, he said, involves improving manufacturing methods so that sufficient quantities of the MV vaccine can be produced for further studies and possible use in patients.

Because people newly infected with HIV risk contracting TB almost immediately, the researchers said, it's important that they get the MV vaccine before they begin taking antiretroviral drugs to fight the HIV infection.

More information

The American Lung Association has more about TB  .