Duloxetine improves depression-related pain
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Treatment with duloxetine relieves pain in patients with major depressive disorder, according to a report in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Duloxetine is used to treat depression and generalized anxiety disorder. It is also used to treat pain and tingling caused by diabetic neuropathy.
Breast cancer therapy response detected early
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A drop in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) indicates that chemotherapy is working in patients with metastatic breast cancer. This can be established within a few weeks, after the first cycle of treatment, a Georgetown University team reported at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
The researchers say that toxic side effects can be minimized and the effectiveness maximized throughout the course of treatment by periodic measurement of CTCs. The early detection of a poor treatment response allows the physician to switch the patient to another drug regimen that may be more effective.
Many kids may not outgrow cow’s milk allergy
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Cow’s milk allergy persists longer than previously reported, and the majority of children may retain the sensitivity into school age, study findings suggest.
“The old data saying that most milk allergy will be easily outgrown, usually by the age of 3 years, is most likely wrong,” Dr. Robert A. Wood, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told Reuters Health.
One hundred arrested for not having toilets
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Local authorities have arrested at least 100 Ugandans for failing to build toilets in their homes in the midst of a cholera epidemic that has killed 8 people and infected 164, state media reported Wednesday.
“We cannot watch as people die (of cholera),” northwestern Bulisa district administrator Norbert Turyahikayo told the New Vision daily, justifying the arrest of Ugandans found to have huts with no pit latrines Tuesday.
Green tea may reduce prostate cancer risk
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Drinking green tea may reduce the risk of advanced prostate cancer, according to a study by researchers at Japan’s National Cancer Center.
According to the report, men who drank five or more cups a day might halve the risk of developing advanced prostate cancer compared with those who drank less than one cup a day.
Study Investigates Cannabis Use Among University Students
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New information published in the Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research explores University students’ motivations for using or not using cannabis and found various factors that might encourage use.
Researchers at Griffith University in Australia administered a survey to students aged 17 to 29 asking about their beliefs about the advantages and disadvantages of using cannabis, their perceptions of what others think they should do in relation to cannabis use, and reasons that might cause them to use or not use.
For babies with heart defects, death risk is far lower at most experienced hospitals
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Each year, thousands of babies are born with severe heart defects that must be operated on within days or weeks of their birth. And though the odds for these infants are much better now than they were even 10 years ago, a new study suggests that there may be a way to give them an even better chance at living: Get them to the hospitals that are the most experienced at handling such cases.
In the first national study of this issue, a team of University of Michigan researchers found that infants with specific complex heart defects are much less likely to die before leaving the hospital if they are treated at the centers that treat the largest numbers of these patients. This relationship between hospital volume and mortality has been seen in adult heart operations, but the new study suggests it holds true for infants as well. The study is published online in the journal Pediatric Cardiology.
Severe psoriasis associated with increased risk of death
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Patients with severe psoriasis appear to have an increased risk of death compared with patients without the skin condition, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Psoriasis is a common inflammatory disorder that affects the skin and joints, according to background information in the article. The condition has been associated with various other factors, including smoking, alcohol use and diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.
Antibiotic treatment targets difficult asthma
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Hunter researchers have shown that a commonly available antibiotic can improve the quality of life of patients with difficult asthma, and may also generate significant health care savings.
Results of a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a top international journal, indicate that macrolide antibiotics could prove a successful therapy in conjunction with current asthma treatment.
Constipation Most Common Cause of Children’s Abdominal Pain
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A new study led by a University of Iowa researcher showed that acute and chronic constipation together accounted for nearly half of all cases of acute abdominal pain in children treated at one hospital.
The study also suggests that physicians should do a simple rectal examination for constipation when trying to determine the cause of abdominal pain in children. The findings, which were based on medical records of 962 children ages 4 to nearly 18, appear in the December issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.
Shorter Legs Linked to Liver Disease
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Short legs are linked to an increased risk of liver disease, suggests a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The research contributes to a growing body of evidence on the link between leg length and health.
New report estimates 12 million cancer deaths worldwide
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A new American Cancer Society report estimates that there will be over 12 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths (about 20,000 cancer deaths a day) worldwide in 2007. The estimate comes from the first-ever Global Cancer Facts & Figures, the latest addition to the American Cancer Society’s family of Facts & Figures publications. The report estimates that 5.4 million of those cancers and 2.9 million deaths will occur in economically developed countries, while 6.7 million cases and 4.7 million deaths will occur in economically developing countries. These projections were based on incidence and mortality data from the Globocan 2002 database compiled by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
In economically developed countries, the three most commonly diagnosed cancers in men are prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer. Among women, they are breast, colorectal, and lung cancer.
Health needs higher for kids of abused moms
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Children whose mothers have a history of abuse by intimate partners have higher health care needs than children whose mothers have no history of abuse, according to a study conducted at Group Health, a Seattle-based health plan.
These needs—expressed in terms of the cost of providing care and use of health services—were higher even if the abuse occurred before the children were born, the research team found. Scientists from Group Health Center for Health Studies, Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center (HIPRC), and Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute conducted the study, which appeared in the December 2007 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Overweight, obesity and cancer: epidemiological evidence and proposed mechanisms
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The prevalence of obesity is rapidly increasing globally. Epidemiological studies have associated obesity with a range of cancer types, although the mechanisms by which obesity induces or promotes tumorigenesis vary by cancer site.
Obesity and cancer: the risks, science, and potential management strategies
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Overweight and obesity increase the risk of developing several cancers. Once cancer develops, individuals may be at increased risk of recurrence and poorer survival if they are overweight or obese. A statistically significant association between overweight or obesity and breast cancer recurrence or survival has been observed in the majority of population-based case series; however, adiposity has been shown to have less of an effect on prognosis in the clinical trial setting.
