Adolescents who act out in class are more likely to experience mental illness, alcohol abuse and both social and financial difficulties later in life, according to a study in the British Medical Journal. 

To reach this conclusion, Ian Colman and a team at the University of Alberta queried data involving all 3652 people born in the UK during a one-week period in 1946 using the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development

In this cohort, teachers had documented “externalizing behavior” such as poor attention in class, disobedience, lying, truancy, tardiness, or poor response to discipline when they were 13 and 15 years old.

9.5% of the participants were classified with severe behavioral problems, and another 28.8% with mild problems.

Study investigators reassessed participants at ages 36, 43 and 53 for mental health, social, and economic outcomes.

It turned out that those with severe behavioral problems during adolescence were 30% more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression, and twice as likely to experience financial difficulties later in life.

Those with at least mild conduct problems were 40% more likely to abuse alcohol and 2.3 times more likely to be involved with a pregnancy during adolescence.

When it came to dropping out of school, those with mild teen behavioral disturbances were more than twice as likely, and those with severe conduct problems were 4 times more likely.

Divorce was 50% and 70% more likely for those with mild and severe conduct problems in adolescence, and self-reported unhappy family life was 30% and 60% more common in those with mild and severe problems respectively. 

The findings held true in men and women and were not affected by educational level.

Pfizer’s $68 billion Wyeth buy must mean the credit spigots have cracked open, deal financing is back and it’s the dawn of the next golden era of M & A, right?

Uh, no. Look at the terms. Pfizer announced it plans to pay for Wyeth using a $22.5 billion loan it negotiated with a 5-bank syndicate, along with equal amounts of stock and cash.

The New York-based drug company, considered to be one of the private sector’s best credit risks and a proud owner of investment-grade credit rating, “agreed to pay 7% to 9% on the loans, which come due in one year,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Not only that according to WSJ, the syndicate–which includes BoA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and  J.P. Morgan Chase can walk if Pfizer’s “credit rating drops below certain thresholds.”

Right on cue, Standard & Poor’s announced it placed Pfizer’s triple-A credit rating on the docket for a downgrade the moment Pfizer announced the deal.

S&P will likely lower Pfizer’s rating to double-A if the deal goes forward due to added leverage and various business challenges faced by the merged entity.

Meanwhile Wyeth’s S&P rating is single-A-plus, just one peg above the minimum required by Pfizer’s deal with the syndicate.

In effect, Wyeth has cast its fate to the ratings agencies. “We realized there’s a new world out there,” a Wyeth insider told WSJ. “You can’t get blood from a stone.”

Then again, Wyeth stands to receive $4.5 billion in break-up fees, twice the usual amount, if Pfizer can’t secure the bank loan.

At the end of its one-year bank loan by the way, Pfizer plans to refinance the $22.5 billion by issuing bonds. Good luck on that.

Amid the unfolding economic crisis, VC investment in clean tech dropped 35% in Q4 2008 when compared to the previous quarter. It was the sharpest fall in 2 years.

A total of $1.7 billion was invested in clean tech during Q4 according to the San Francisco-based market tracking company Cleantech Group.

(Hat tip: Gooz) Clean tech includes solar, clean coal, wind and other technologies that help control industrial pollution and emissions.

Officials at Cleantech Group believe the dropoff is likely to persist through Q1 of this year, but remain optimistic that investment will pick up especially since the Big O indicated he wants to invest heavily in the sector.

“The fundamentals are still strong when it comes to clean tech,” Brian Fan told the Wall Street Journal. Cleantech’s senior director of research added “we know the world has to get off coal and has to replace oil.”

Despite the Q4 downturn, VC investments in the space rose 38% for the year, to an all-time high of $8.4 billion. These numbers have risen every year since 2001 when investments totaled $506.8 million.

There were 241 disclosed investment rounds in the sector in 2008. The most frequent investors were Khosla Ventures (21 separate investments) and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (18).

Solar power accounted for 40% of the investment in the space, followed by biofuels, transportation and wind.

Many of the larger investments during Q4 2008 were sunk into so-called thin-film solar companies, which produce solar panels from materials other than silicon and are hence notably cheaper.