Post-partum suicide attempt risks studied
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Although maternal suicide after giving birth is a relatively rare occurrence, suicide attempts often have long-lasting effects on the family and the infant. In a study published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers compared two populations of mothers and found that a history of psychiatric disorders or substance abuse was a strong predictor of post-partum suicide attempts.
Using the hospitalization and birth records from Washington State, USA, from 1992 to 2001, the researchers found that 335 women had been hospitalized for suicide attempts. Another 1420 women who had given birth but had not been hospitalized for a suicide attempt served as a control group.
After adjusting for fetal or infant death and other variables, women who had been previously hospitalized for psychiatric disorders were more than 27 times as likely to attempt suicide as women without this medical history. Women with a history of substance abuse were six times as likely to attempt suicide, while psychiatric hospitalization and substance abuse together increased the risk by 11 times.
Students with food allergies often not prepared
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College students with food allergies aren’t avoiding the foods they know they shouldn’t eat. Students of all ages are not treated with potentially life-saving epinephrine as often as they should be. And instructors, roommates and friends often are not aware of what to do if a food-allergic student has a reaction.
These are some of the findings of recent studies at the University of Michigan Health System. The research suggests that many college students with food allergies aren’t taking the threat of a reaction seriously enough, or are regularly in environments where they could not be properly treated during an emergency. In addition, grade-school students are often in school environments where there is no food allergy policy, and where instructors are not trained how to treat an emergency food allergy reaction.
In four related studies about food allergies, the researchers found a common theme: “Food-allergic individuals need to increase the awareness of their food allergy among the people around them,” says lead researcher Matt Greenhawt, M.D., MBA, who conducted the research while he was a fellow in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the U-M Health System and now is an associate at the Allergy & Asthma Center, LLC in the Atlanta metro area.
Racial differences again seen in prostate cancer
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Black men with prostate cancer, compared with their White counterparts, have a poorer prognosis that is not fully explained by other “co-morbid” illnesses, or by different screening rates or access to healthcare, researchers from the UK report.
The finding stems from a systematic review and pooled analysis of 48 published studies that reported Black-White differences in prostate cancer prognosis.
“Some of the differences in prostate cancer mortality may reflect less aggressive management amongst Black men, particularly in older cohorts,” Dr. Yoav Ben-Shlomo from the University of Bristol and colleagues suggest in a report in the International Journal of Cancer.
US teens often watch extremely violent movies
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A telephone survey of 6,522 teens, between 10 and 14 years of age, reveals that, overall, up to 48 percent have watched a movie with extreme graphic violence. However, in certain subgroups, such as black males, rates over 80 percent were seen.
Concerns have been raised about the harmful effects of exposure to violent media, Dr. Keilah A. Worth and colleagues note in the journal Pediatrics, yet data regarding the occurrence of such exposure among teens is lacking.
In the new study, Worth, from Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire, assessed exposure to 40 movies that were rated R for violence by the Motion Picture Association of America, UK 18 by the British Board of Film Classification, and were determined to have extreme violence by trained content coders.
Study shows why once is enough to hook some smokers
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For some people, one cigarette is all it takes to become hooked on nicotine, while others are repelled by it.
Researchers in Canada have found a region in the brains of rats that may be the key to these differences.
By manipulating specific molecular doorways into brain cells called receptors, they were able to control which rats in the study enjoyed their first exposure to nicotine and which were repelled by it.
WHO publishes how-to guide on fighting AIDS
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What is the best way to set up an AIDS testing clinic? Which are the best drugs to give to people infected with HIV? The World Health Organization released a one-stop guidebook on Tuesday to help low- and middle-income countries seeking to battle the pandemic.
It includes advice on distributing condoms, guidance on counseling and lists of the available tests for diagnosing HIV.
“This document responds to a long-standing country need,” WHO’s HIV/AIDS Department Director, Dr. Kevin De Cock, said in a statement.
African ex-leaders to press politicians over AIDS
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Former leaders of African countries ravaged by AIDS are launching a regional campaign to put pressure on politicians who they say have not done enough to combat the virus.
Former presidents of Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia and other well-known figures, including South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu, are demanding more government action and public education campaigns to prevent new infections in countries where up to one in four people have AIDS.
“The fact that we are prominent individuals from all parts of Africa, if we strongly disagree with someone I think we can mobilize shame against that person,” former Botswanan President Festus Mogae told Reuters in an interview.
Olympics-Doping: Russia denies “systematic” doping
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The Russian team on Wednesday denied accusations of systematic doping among its athletes and questioned the timing of the announcements days before the Beijing Olympics that several of them had failed drugs tests.
Some of the country’s leading medal hopes, including track and field athletes, a cyclist and a race walker, have been expelled or suspended from the Games in the past week after failed tests and accusations of switching urine samples.
The head of Russia’s athletics federation on Wednesday said doping was “a sporting crime” and called for criminal charges against athletes who use banned performance enhancing drugs.
Even viruses get sick
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Even viruses can go down with a viral infection, French scientists reported on Wednesday, in a discovery that may help explain how they swap genes and evolve so rapidly.
A new strain of giant virus was isolated from a cooling tower in Paris and found to be infected by a smaller type of virus, named Sputnik, after the first man-made satellite.
Sputnik is the first example of a virus infecting another virus to make it sick.
Mexicans in U.S. illegally at more risk of AIDS
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Mexican men living and working illegally in the United States are more likely to sell their bodies for sex, take drugs or frequent prostitutes than they would have in their homeland, increasing their risk of HIV infection, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
And if they are deported, they can take the virus back home with them, the researchers told an international conference on AIDS in Mexico City.
“They are in a new environment, they are discriminated against, they are living in harsh conditions, sometimes just in boxes covered in plastic near the farms where they work,” said George Lemp of the California HIV/AIDS Research Program at the University of California, who studied 458 Mexicans before and after they left their homeland.
Adults who eat eggs for breakfast lose 65 percent more weight
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A study published online today in the International Journal of Obesity shows that eating two eggs for breakfast, as part of a reduced-calorie diet, helps overweight adults lose more weight and feel more energetic than those who eat a bagel breakfast of equal calories. [1] This study supports previous research, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, which showed that people who ate eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied and ate fewer calories at the following meal. [2]
“People have a hard time adhering to diets and our research shows that choosing eggs for breakfast can dramatically improve the success of a weight loss plan,” said Nikhil V. Dhurandhar, Ph.D., lead researcher and associate professor in the laboratory of infection and obesity at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, a campus of the Louisiana State University system. “Apparently, the increased satiety and energy due to eggs helps people better comply with a reduced-calorie diet.”
Estrogen Relieves Psychotic Symptoms in Women With Schizophrenia
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When combined with antipsychotic medications, the estrogen estradiol appears to be a useful treatment in women with schizophrenia, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
The link between estrogen and mental illness was recognized more than a century ago, according to background information in the article. However, scientific evidence regarding estrogen as a therapy for mental illness has only recently emerged. “Epidemiologic observations of sex differences in the onset and course of schizophrenia prompted exploration of estrogen’s role in schizophrenia,” the authors write.
Jayashri Kulkarni, M.B.B.S., M.P.M., F.R.A.N.Z.C.P., Ph.D., of The Alfred and Monash University and The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues conducted a randomized, double-blind study involving 102 women of child-bearing age with schizophrenia. For 28 days, 56 women were randomly assigned to receive 100 micrograms of estradiol daily via a skin patch and 46 women received a placebo skin patch in addition to their regular medications. Psychotic symptoms, which include delusions and hallucinatory behavior, were assessed weekly with a commonly used scale.
