Combat Duty in Iraq Linked With High Use of Mental Health Services
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About one-third of U.S. military personnel from the war in Iraq access mental health services after their return home, according to a study in the March 1 issue of JAMA.
The U.S. military has conducted population-level screening for mental health problems among all service members returning from deployment to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other locations. To date, no systematic analysis of this program has been conducted, and studies have not assessed the impact of these deployments on mental health care utilization after deployment, according to background information in the article. Such information is an important part of measuring the mental health burden of the current war and assuring that there are adequate resources to meet the mental health care needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mild thyroid disease not tied to heart problems
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Mild disease of the thyroid gland, a hormone-secreting organ in the neck, does not generally cause heart problems or stroke, new research shows. The one exception is a slightly overactive thyroid gland, which may raise the risk of atrial fibrillation, a common heart-rhythm disturbance in which the upper chambers beat erratically.
The findings are based on a study of 3233 older adults who had thyroid function testing performed between 1989 and 1990 and then were followed through June 2002 for heart problems and stroke. All of the subjects were 65 years of age or older when the study started.
Treatment of early prostate cancer can wait
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Surgical treatment of early prostate cancers can be delayed for more than 2 years without reducing the chances of curing the disease, new research shows.
The study, which appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, compared curability rates for 38 men who had delayed surgery and 150 who were treated with immediate surgery. Men in the former group underwent surgery around 26 months after diagnosis, while those in the latter group waited only about 3 months.
Soy benefits heart health in healthy young men
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Soy proteins modulate the ratio of different lipids in the blood, in a way that should reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, in healthy subjects, according Canadian researchers.
Diet is one channel through which blood lipid levels can be modified. Lately, soy has received special attention, in particular soy proteins and soy “isoflavones”—estrogen-like plant compounds whose effects are still controversial—according to lead author Alison Duncan, from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
France urges air ticket tax to fight AIDS, disease
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President Jacques Chirac urged rich states on Tuesday to follow France’s lead and adopt a one-euro levy on plane tickets to help poor countries buy drugs they need to fight AIDS and other killer diseases.
Chirac said the surcharge would help spread the benefits of globalisation to people living on less than a euro a day, a level of poverty that prevents those hardest hit by malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis from receiving treatment.
Cocoa consumers have lower disease risk: study
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In a group of elderly men, those who consumed the most cocoa had a 50 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease or any cause compared to those who did not drink cocoa or eat cocoa-containing foods, Dutch researchers said on Monday.
Cocoa is known to lower blood pressure, though previous studies have disagreed about whether it staves off heart disease over the long-term particularly since it is contained in foods high in fat, sugar and calories.
Link between rheumatoid arthritis and cancer examined
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Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease of the immune system and is thought to be linked to an increased risk of cancers of the lymphatic system.
The lymphatic system plays an important part in the body’s ability to fight infection.
Although various studies have noted this link, none have been able to pinpoint the specific effects of the disease on lymphoma risk, let alone distinguish them from the effects of disease treatment.
Breast cancer risk tied to HRT evident across race
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Postmenopausal hormone therapy with estrogen or estrogen-progestin is associated with an increase in breast cancer risk across ethnic groups, new research indicates.
Previous studies have indicated that menopausal estrogen-progestin therapy increases the risk of breast cancer, but it is unclear whether this association varies by specific prognostic factors and ethnicity.
“Findings from our study are consistent with previous literature of an association between hormone therapy use in breast cancer, in particular, an increase in risk associated with current estrogen-progestin therapy use,” Dr. Malcolm Pike from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and colleagues write in the International Journal of Cancer.
Oral agent alendronate may help men with prostate cancer suffering from bone loss
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Men with prostate cancer who experience bone loss from cancer treatment could benefit from a weekly oral therapy commonly given to women with osteoporosis, according to a study presented by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Prostate Cancer Symposium, Feb. 24 to 26 at the San Francisco Marriott.
“In previous studies, we have determined that men who receive androgen deprivation therapy, a frequently used treatment for prostate cancer, suffer from severe drops in bone mass and are at an increased risk for fracture,” said study principal investigator Susan Greenspan, M.D., professor of medicine, University of Pittsburgh and director, Osteoporosis Prevention and Treatment Center, UPMC. “In an attempt to mitigate these effects, we gave men using this therapy a once-weekly oral agent called alendronate that is commonly used to treat osteoporosis. We found that men who received it had significantly increased bone mass compared to those who did not receive the therapy.”
The study included 112 men with prostate cancer with an average age of 71. After an average of two years androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer, only 9 percent of the men had normal bone mass, while 52 percent had low bone mass and 39 percent developed osteoporosis. To study the effect of alendronate on these men, they were randomized into two groups to receive either alendronate once a week through an orally administered pill or a placebo. At one year follow-up, bone mass in the spine and hip increased significantly in the men treated with alendronate, 4.9 percent and 2.1 percent respectively. By comparison, men in the placebo group had significant losses of bone mass in the spine and hip, 1.3 percent and .7 percent respectively. In addition, the therapy was well-tolerated and easily administered.
Minister says UK prepared to face bird flu
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Britain’s farm and environment minister Margaret Beckett said on Monday that the country is well prepared to react swiftly to any outbreak of deadly bird flu.
The spread of the killer H5N1 virus across Europe to France took centre stage at this week’s National Farmers’ Union annual conference, more than doubling media attendance from last year.
Both NFU president Tim Bennett and Beckett warned that the poultry sector could be destroyed by media “scaremongering” about the disease.
Study shows survival advantage for men treated with radical prostatectomy
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A new study shows older men with early stage prostate cancer survive longer if they are treated versus not being treated in favor of the “watchful waiting” approach advocated by many physicians for older men with other health problems.
In addition, the study revealed a survival benefit for men treated with radiation therapy making it the first study to demonstrate a survival advantage in an older population.
Significant advance in our understanding of how sound is encoded for transmission to the brain
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Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered that our ears use the most efficient way to process the sounds we hear, from babbling brooks to wailing babies.
These results represent a significant advance in our understanding of how sound is encoded for transmission to the brain, according to the authors, whose work is published with an accompanying “News and Views” editorial in the Feb. 23 issue of Nature.
Scientists can now predict memory of an event before it even happens
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Scientists can now predict memory of an event before it even happens. A team at UCL (University College London) can now tell how well memory will serve us before we have seen what we will remember.
Scans of brain activity, published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience, indicate that the brain can actually get into the ‘right frame of mind’ to store new information and that we perform at our best if the brain is active not only at the moment we get new information but also in the seconds before.
Taste genes may yield important information about who smokes and why they smoke
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Recent research on the genetics of smoking has focused on genes that are thought to be related to nicotine metabolism, personality traits, and regulation of emotions.
According to a genetic study just published in “Nicotine and Tobacco Research,” genes responsible for taste also may yield important information about who smokes and why they smoke.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Utah wanted to determine if a “bitterness” gene-phenylthiocarbamide (PTC)-was related to smoking status and how important the taste of cigarettes is to a smoker. As predicted, those smokers who possessed less sensitivity to bitter taste were more likely to rate taste as a strong reason for smoking, and those who were sensitive to bitter taste were less likely to smoke for taste.
Teatments based on behaviour could reduce prescription drug use
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New psychological treatments - behavioural medicine - could significantly reduce the need for drug treatments for some conditions, cutting health system costs says an editorial in this week’s British Medical Journal.
Behavioural medicine - using treatments borrowed from psychology such as cognitive behavioural therapy - has the potential to reduce pain, argue the authors. Treating a patient with a system of behavioural instructions before surgery, for instance, can lower the amount of anaesthetic required during the operation, and cut the time they need to stay in hospital.
