Episode 4- The Age of Adolescence

Professor Susan Sawyer, Paediatrician and expert in Adolescent Health, describes contemporary understandings about the beginnings and endpoints of "Adolescence". She relates her viewpoint piece, published in The Lancet journal in 2018 titled “The Age of Adolescence” which describes how advances in brain imaging and neurobiology have furthered our understandings of biological beginnings and endpoints, how these discoveries might add to our understanding of this time of life. She discusses rights, the law and contemporary social influences and how all of these elements frame our understandings of this time of life and how we might work better with (and for) teens both in clinical practice and in research.

Link to podcast: https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=679922

We discuss her article The Age of Adoelscence. To check out the article head to: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(18)30022-1/fulltext

Timing of normal puberty

For more information about growth disorders in teens: https://www.racgp.org.au/afp/2017/december/growth-disorders-in-adolescents/

Susan refers to HEADS screening. For more information check out episode 1 of the Maze phase or head to the RCH guidelines: https://www.rch.org.au/clinicalguide/guideline_index/Engaging_with_and_assessing_the_adolescent_patient/

Thanks for listening. Subscribe and please get in touch at gp-enquiries@unimelb.edu.au to send feedback, questions and ideas about future episodes.

This Podcast was recorded at the PodHub on the 5th September, 2019

Presented by: Bianca Forrester

Produced by: Bianca Forrester

Audio Engineering: Chris Hatzis

Post-Production: Arch Cuthbertson

Music: Space Cadet Lullabies

Graphics: Gaal Creative