Psychiatry / Psychology
Health, wealth seem not to affect dementia risk
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The incidence of dementia does not appear to be influenced by social background or health status, at least in the UK, the results of a study from the Medical Research Council (MRC) has shown.
MRC researchers interviewed and followed 13,000 people from five ethnically uniform sites, ranging from wealthy Cambridge in the east of England to deprived Newcastle in the north, and found that that “health and wealth does not affect the incidence of dementia in England and Wales.”
Nervousness, worry may predict suicide attempt
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Men and women who describe themselves as nervous or anxious seem to be more likely than their calmer counterparts to be hospitalized at some point for a suicide attempt, according to a study involving adults in Sweden.
“Health personnel should pay attention to patient anxiety in their diagnostic procedures, especially among men,” said study co-author Dr. Mans Rosen, of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare in Stockholm. “Self-perceived anxiety is a rather good predictor of premature mortality and severe morbidity.”
China’s exorbitant health care fees spark suicides
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A Chinese security guard hailed as a hero for fighting off a purse snatcher jumped to his death from a 19th-storey hospital window because he couldn’t afford treatment, epitomizing the failure of China’s health care reforms.
The suicide, reported by state media, was not an isolated case. A 42-year-old farmer too poor to afford treatment for Lung Cancer set off a home-made bomb aboard a bus in Fuzhou, capital of the southeastern province of Fujian, on August 8 in a suicide attack that killed another passenger and wounded 30.
Mental illness, fears stalk Aceh tsunami survivors
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Mental illness, access to health services and the threat of disease remain daily challenges for residents of Indonesia’s Aceh province nearly eight months after it was hit by Asia’s devastating tsunami.
But huge progress has also been made in caring for the more than half a million Acehnese left grieving and homeless by the disaster, says David Nabarro, head of crisis operations for the U.N.‘s World Health Organisation (WHO).
People with mental illness often victims of crime
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More than one-quarter of people with severe mental illness say they were victims of a violent crime within the past year, giving them a more than 11-fold higher risk than that seen in the general population, according to new study findings.
Study author Dr. Linda A. Teplin of Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, noted that for people without mental illness, being the victim of a crime can be very upsetting; the effect could be even more destabilizing for someone who has a mental illness. “Imagine if you’re already vulnerable,” she said.
One in 10 UK kids bullied by picture phone-survey
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One in 10 British children say they have been threatened or made uncomfortable by people taking a photograph of them with a mobile phone, according to a survey published on Tuesday.
Children’s charity NCH said nearly a sixth of this total believed their image had then been sent to someone else.
A recent craze of “happy slapping”, where random attacks on strangers are filmed by camera phone, has fuelled concerns about youth crime in Britain where tackling anti-social behaviour is a top political issue.
J&J says FDA rejects Risperdal as autism treatment
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Johnson & Johnson said on Friday U.S. regulators rejected its application to market antipsychotic drug Risperdal for patients with autism.
Johnson & Johnson’s Pharmaceutical Research & Development unit said it received a “not-approvable” letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its petition for an additional use of the drug, which currently is used as a treatment for schizophrenia.
Fear of falling keeps some middle-agers inactive
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Not just the elderly, but also a good number of middle-aged adults are apparently afraid of falling. Nearly one-third of middle-aged African Americans say they are, and many curtail their activity as a result, new survey findings show.
Some people “who had never fallen, yet had a fear of falling, voluntarily restricted their activity due to this fear,” said study author Dr. Margaret-Mary Wilson.
Wilson, who is based at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri, said that although falls can cause injuries, these risks are far outweighed by the benefits of being active in middle age.
“How long do I have, doc?” Few answer
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While most cancer doctors are candid in telling patients if their illness is terminal, very few are willing to say how long they are likely to live, a survey shows.
Dr. Christopher K. Daugherty talked about the survey results at the meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
“Physicians have been described as being poor at giving accurate prognostic information to their dying patients and these patients have also been described as overestimating their survival times,” he commented.
Lonely students show weaker immunity: study
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First-year college students who consider themselves to be very lonely on campus and cut off from their friends and family back home may receive less benefit from flu vaccinations than their peers, new study findings suggest.
“The loneliness and social isolation that university freshman experience in their first semester is powerful enough to have a very real impact on immune function, with potentially health relevant implications,” said study author Sarah D. Pressman, a doctoral candidate at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Melon University.
