Women More Likely to Comply with Stroke Prevention Despite Being More Depressed
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After a stroke, women are more likely to become depressed than men, but despite being depressed, women are more likely than men to take stroke medications, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12–19, 2008.
The study involved 491 stroke survivors who were all prescribed drugs prior to hospital discharge aimed at preventing a second stroke by lowering cholesterol, reducing high blood pressure and preventing blood clots. Three months later, researchers evaluated the participants’ level of depression, quality of life, and whether they were still taking the stroke prevention drugs. A total of 385 people, or 78 percent, were still taking their medications after three months.
Nineteen percent of women reported feelings of depression, compared to 10 percent of men. Thirty percent of women reported sleep problems, compared to 22 percent of men. But the men who kept taking their drugs reported a better overall quality of life than women who stuck with their medications.
Gene therapy reduces cocaine use in rats
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Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown that increasing the brain level of receptors for dopamine, a pleasure-related chemical, can reduce use of cocaine by 75 percent in rats trained to self-administer it. Earlier research by this team had similar findings for alcohol intake. Treatments that increase levels of these chemicals - dopamine D2 receptors—may prove useful in treating addiction, according to the authors. The study will be published online April 16 and will appear in the July 2008 issue of Synapse.
“By increasing dopamine D2 receptor levels, we saw a dramatic drop in these rats’ interest in cocaine,” said lead author Panayotis (Peter) Thanos, a neuroscientist with Brookhaven Lab and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Laboratory of Neuroimaging. “This provides new evidence that low levels of dopamine D2 receptors may play an important role in not just alcoholism but in cocaine abuse as well. It also shows a potential direction for addiction therapies.”
Obese women disadvantaged in both breast cancer treatment and diagnosis
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Berlin, Germany: Obese women with breast cancer have worse disease outcomes and also tend to present to their doctor for the first time with more advanced disease, two scientists told the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-6) today (Wednesday 16 April).
Dr. Evandro de Azambuja and colleagues at the Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, Belgium, told the conference that his work, which involved 2887 patients, showed that women who had a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30kg/m2 had poorer outcomes in terms of disease-free and overall survival. “Our data once more stress the global problem of obesity,” he said.
Dr. de Azambuja and colleagues studied patients who were taking part in an international phase III trial (BIG 2-98) which compared two docetaxel regimes with two anthracycline regimes in patients with node-positive breast cancer (where the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes). Obesity was found in 19% of all patients enrolled in this trial. “We found that 5-year disease-free survival in non-obese patients was significantly higher than in the obese group,” he said. “75.9% of the non-obese patients were disease-free after 5 years as compared to 70% of those who were obese. In addition, the 5-year overall survival was 87.5% in the non-obese patients compared to 82.9% in the obese patients.
OHSU Cancer Institute researchers discover key gene involvement in cancer development
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Oregon Health & Science University researchers have identified a gene that is necessary in eliminating cancer cells.
“This finding is important because expression of this gene is frequently suppressed in many cancers, such as lymphoma and breast cancers,” said Charles Lopez, M.D., Ph.D., OHSU Cancer Institute (hematology/medical oncology), OHSU School of Medicine.
The research will be presented at a minisymposium on Wednesday April 16 at 10:30 a.m. at the annual American Association of Cancer Research meeting in San Diego, Calif.
World-first discovery could help treat life-threatening tumors
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WA researchers investigating how blood vessel growth keeps cancers alive have made a world-first discovery that could boost the chances of successfully treating life-threatening tumours.
Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR) Associate Professor Ruth Ganss and her team have found that a gene called RGS5 can reverse angiogenesis – the growth of blood vessels inside the tumour.
The discovery is published in the most recent edition of Nature, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals.
Disturbed regulation of insulin production
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Disturbed regulation of insulin production: genome study casts new light on the origin of type 2 diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes is a chronic disease with rising prevalence rates throughout the world. In Germany, about 8 million people are affected. These numbers could even be an underestimation as a relatively high number of undiagnosed diabetics remains. The newly-published meta analysis 1) on the genetics of type 2 diabetes casts new light on the origin of this disease. With participation of scientists of the Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, the international study confirms findings that the disease is at least partly based on a misregulation of insulin producing cells.
Breaking personal health records
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Who owns your medical tests results and your personal health data? Such a vexing question cuts to the core of personal liberty and freedom of information. Now, researchers writing in the International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management have introduced the notion of ownership of medical information and present a basic research model for the adoption of personal health records.
Personal health records (PHRs) have been developed in the US as part of the Institute of Medicine’s goal of improving healthcare quality and making it more patient-centered as well as through patient pressure to have greater control of their health data. The PHR is also integral to the US National Health Information Network (NHIN), which will give all Americans access to their electronic health records by 2014. However, little research has been published on how PHRs compare with other types of medical records or how privacy concerns are to be addressed.
Melinda Whetstone and Ebrahim Randeree of the College of Information, at Florida State University, Tallahassee explain that employers, insurance companies, healthcare providers and independent entities have increasing access to PHRs. However, whether the PHR, and other types of electronic records (Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Electronic Health Record (EHR), have been adopted and implemented successfully remains unclear.
Video helps adjustment to life after breast cancer
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An educational video may be more effective and far less costly than psychological counseling in helping women adjust to life after breast cancer, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among 389 breast cancer survivors they followed for a year, those who were given an educational booklet and video generally had greater improvements in emotional distress and fatigue than women who attended two counseling sessions.
The cost of the video was less than $26 per patient, compared with roughly $134 for the video plus individual counseling.
Experimental drug shrinks advanced skin cancer
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An experimental drug designed to block a specific cell-signaling pathway has been shown in a small trial to shrink tumors in patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma, researchers said on Monday.
Basal cell carcinoma, a type of non-melanoma skin cancer, is the most common form of cancer, with about a million new cases estimated in the United States each year.
Most cases are easy to treat when detected early, but in rare instances the cancer is resistant to treatment, causing damage to skin and sometimes invading bone and cartilage.
Testosterone predicts profits on trading floors
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Financial traders make more money when their testosterone levels are high, perhaps because the male hormone makes them more confident and focused, British researchers reported on Monday.
Their study of male traders in the City of London financial district showed they made bigger profits on days when their testosterone levels were already high.
Testosterone may help focus the mind but constantly high testosterone levels are likely to make traders foolhardy, the researchers at the University of Cambridge cautioned.
How Big Is Your Brain? Its Size May Protect You from Memory Loss
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From autopsies, researchers have long known that some people die with sharp minds and perfect memories, but their brains riddled with the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s disease. New research shows that those people have a larger part of the brain called the hippocampus. The research will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12 – April 19, 2008.
“This larger hippocampus may protect these people from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease-related brain changes,” said study author Deniz Erten-Lyons, MD, with Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, and member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Hopefully this will lead us eventually to prevention strategies.”
For the study, researchers evaluated the brains of 12 people who had sharp memories and thinking skills at the time of death, but whose autopsies showed a high amount of Alzheimer’s plaques. Their brains were compared to those of 23 people who had the same amount of plaques in their brains, but had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease before death.
Study suggests too much screen time and not enough physical activity may lead to childhood obesity
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Childhood obesity is a growing concern for pediatricians and caregivers. In response to this problem, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) created guidelines for children regarding physical activity and screen time, which includes both watching television and playing video games. The AAP has made the following recommendations: 1) boys should take at least 11,000 steps a day; 2) girls should take at least 13,000 steps a day; and 3) children should limit total screen time to two hours a day. A new study soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics evaluates these recommendations and the combined influence of screen time and physical activity on a child’s risk of being overweight.
Exercise combats cancer-related fatigue
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When cancer and its treatments leave a patient with a relentless weariness of body and mind, exercise might help, according to a new review of studies.
The meta-analysis of 28 studies of cancer-related fatigue found that exercise is more effective at combating the problem than the usual care provided to patients.
“A lot of the time, the medical response to patients is that they should expect to be fatigued, that it is a normal side effect. If patients are told that fatigue is just a side effect and to accept it, what they are not getting is any advice or support to help them cope,” said lead review author Fiona Cramp.
Creatinine Increase in Elderly Means Increased Renal Disease, Mortality
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Even small increases in serum creatinine levels during hospitalization raise the risk of end stage renal disease and mortality of elderly patients over the long term, according to a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The 10-year retrospective study, led by UAB nephrologist Britt Newsome, M.D, is the first systematic description of creatinine increase and longer-term end stage renal disease and mortality risk. Previous studies showed a relationship between reductions in kidney function during hospitalization and higher mortality rates.
“Previous studies have shown that a rise in serum creatinine level of 0.3 milligrams per deciliter or more during hospitalization is associated with higher in-hospital mortality, longer stays and higher costs,” Newsome said. “However, little was known about the long-term risks of subsequent end-stage renal disease and mortality in this population. The long-term risks we observed suggest that even the least severe category of kidney injury may indicate a worse prognosis.”
Antipsychotic Drugs Increase Risk of Developing Pneumonia in Elderly
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Elderly patients who use antipsychotic drugs have a 60 percent increased risk of developing pneumonia compared to non-users. This risk is highest in the first week following prescription and decreases gradually thereafter. These findings are published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Antipsychotic drugs are frequently used in elderly patients for the treatment of psychosis and behavioral problems associated with dementia and delirium. This study is the first to show that the development of pneumonia is associated with antipsychotic drug use.
“The risk of developing pneumonia is not associated with long-term use, but is the highest shortly after starting the drug,” say Drs. Rob van Marum and Wilma Knol, authors of the study. They caution that “all antipsychotic drugs may be associated with pneumonia in elderly patients.”
