MRI scan shows promise in treating bipolar disorder
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A study published in the Jan. 1, 2004 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry had a surprising start.
As Michael Rohan, imaging physicist in McLean Hospital’s Brain Imaging Center, explains, “We were using MRI to investigate the effectiveness of certain medications in bipolar patients and noticed that many came out of the MRI feeling much better than when they went in. We decided to investigate further.” Researchers theorized that one type of magnetic pulse they were using was having the positive effect. “This was purely accidental.
Genetic Disorders Often the Cause of Birth Defects
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Although mothers often do all they can to maintain a healthy Pregnancy, babies still have birth defects.
Sometimes parents are told that an accident during the Pregnancy may have caused their child’s condition. But looking at the baby’s family history may reveal another source of the problem—genetics.
Cannabis-based drugs might relieve bowel disease
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Derivatives of the active compound in cannabis—cannabinoids—may have the potential for treating inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative colitis, UK researchers report.
“The system that responds to cannabis in the brain is present and functioning in the lining of the gut,” said lead researcher Dr. Karen Wright, of the University of Bath. “There is an increased presence of one component of this system during inflammatory bowel diseases,” she explained.
A little oxygen at birth, more cancer risk later?
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Babies given 3 or more minutes of oxygen soon after they’re born may run a slightly increased risk of developing cancer later in childhood, according to researchers. The association is not totally clearcut, however.
In a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics, Dr. Logan G. Spector, of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and colleagues examined the relationship between neonatal oxygen supplementation and childhood cancer. Included were 54,795 children born between 1959 and 1966 and followed to age 8.
UK children claim easy access to cigarettes, drink
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Young people in Britain find it easy to get hold of cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs from ages as young as 12, health specialists said on Friday.
Most regular smokers aged 12-15 claim they buy cigarettes in shops, even though the legal minimum age is 16.
Around 80 percent of 15-year-olds say alcoholic drinks are very or fairly easy to obtain, usually through friends or relatives. By the age of 16 or 17, drinkers are usually buying alcohol for themselves, defying a legal minimum age of 18.
Germany orders 6 million courses of flu drug
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Germany has placed an order for some 6 million courses of Roche Holding AG’s influenza drug Tamiflu to prepare for a potential outbreak of avian flu, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday.
Germany is one of many countries to place orders for Tamiflu, the antiviral drug which the World Health Organisation recommends countries stockpile in case the H5N1 bird flu virus spreads.
“So far it is six million and discussions are still going on and it is not yet finalised,” a spokeswoman for Roche in Basel said.
Calif court lets stand $50 million tobacco verdict
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The California Supreme Court on Thursday let stand a lower court’s decision that cut in half a $100 million punitive damages award to a sick smoker who had sued tobacco maker Philip Morris.
The Supreme Court voted 5-0 to not review the decision of the Second District Court of Appeal, which in April reduced the massive punitive award and upheld compensatory damages of more than $5 million to plaintiff Richard Boeken.
U.S. abortion rights group pulls anti-Roberts ad
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A leading U.S. abortion rights advocacy group pulled a controversial television advertisement on Thursday that accuses Supreme Court nominee John Roberts of supporting an abortion clinic bomber and excusing violence.
NARAL Pro-Choice America withdrew the advertisement after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter complained in a letter that it was a blatantly unfair attack on Roberts for his participation, as deputy solicitor general, in an abortion clinic case.
US FDA unveils tighter restrictions on acne drug
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Patients and doctors must register with manufacturers before using or prescribing Roche Holding AG’s acne drug Accutane or its generic versions, U.S. regulators said on Friday.
The requirement is part of a plan to strengthen safeguards meant to keep pregnant women from taking Accutane, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. The drug can cause birth defects.
New approach flushes out hidden HIV
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A strategy used by the wily AIDS virus to perpetuate infection may be susceptible to attack, according to a new report.
One of the fundamental difficulties in trying to eradicate HIV in people infected with the virus is that, even with the best antiviral treatment, small numbers of the virus can lie dormant in immune cells, ready to break out and multiply rapidly when the opportunity occurs.
This week, researchers report a way to flush the latent virus out of its hiding place in resting CD4 cells (immune cells that have not been activated to fight off microbes), and then pick it off with potent drugs.
Treating postpartum depression involves much more than taking a pill
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Q: My daughter is suffering from Postpartum Depression. Antidepressants prescribed by her obstetrician have done nothing. Is there anywhere else to turn?
A: As you know, Postpartum Depression has been in the news recently, sometimes with tragic results. Your daughter is very lucky to have you watching out for her.
It’s a problem that the medical community has only begun to take seriously, says Kathleen Fields, a nurse-midwife affiliated with Warren Hospital. She also teaches in the maternal/child unit of the nursing department at Cedar Crest College.
Lung cancer kills more Victorian women
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Lung Cancer is expected to overtake breast cancer as Victoria’s leading cause of cancer deaths in women.
The Cancer Council has released figures showing Lung Cancer killed more than 1,100 men and nearly 700 women in Victoria in 2003.
The figure represents a slight increase on the previous year.
When calories attack
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If you’ve cut out junk food, increased the exercise, ditched the salt shaker and still 10 pounds cling, it may be because ...
Weight gain during life’s changes frustrates women
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For most of her life, Janice Hall was small. Not just petite, at 4-foot-10, but thin, too.
But after having her second child, a son, at age 40, her body seemed to shift. “I noticed a huge difference in being unable to lose weight,” recalls the Rochester nurse.
Over time, she attributed it to the postpartum period, then age, then stress. But after she hit 50, meticulously trimmed her calories, continued her workouts and still saw the scale number climb, Hall got irked.
Too many Indigenous kids dying, AMA says
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The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says a survey showing an alarmingly high mortality rate among Indigenous children highlights the need for urgent antenatal care funding.
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey found a 3.2 per cent mortality rate among Indigenous children under the age of five.
The figure is almost five times higher than for children from other backgrounds.
