Depressed mice recover with molecular therapy
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Depressed loner mice get more sociable when researchers delete a memory molecule from their brains, a finding that might help treat human ills like social phobia and post-traumatic stress, scientists said on Thursday.
This molecular therapy worked about as well as giving mice the antidepressants Prozac or Tofranil, the researchers reported in the current issue of the journal Science.
Focused ultrasound effective against fibroids
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For women with fibroids, treatment with focused ultrasound guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) seems to relieve symptoms well, researchers report.
“This is the first large study using MR-guided focused ultrasound surgery for uterine fibroids and demonstrates successful symptom reduction at 6 and 12 months with a low rate of adverse events,” lead investigator Dr. Elizabeth A. Stewart told Reuters Health.
Many new immigrants to US change diet—and not for the better
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Coming to the land of milk and honey can be hazardous to new immigrants’ diet and health.
So says Ilana Redstone Akresh (pronounced AY-kresh), a visiting professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author of a new analysis of dietary assimilation and immigrant health. In her study, Akresh considered the changes in immigrants’ diets after coming to the United States and the subsequent relationship between those changes and Body Mass Index (BMI) and health status.
It’s in the genes: Study opens door to new treatment of the blues
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A Florida State University scientist used a gene transfer technique to block the expression of a gene associated with clinical depression in a new study of mice that could lead to better treatment of human beings with this condition.
Carlos Bolanos, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, was among a team of researchers that identified the role of a gene called Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in the development of social aversion. Mice treated with a transfer technique to block expression of the BDNF gene in a small area of the mid-brain did not develop the aversion despite repeated encounters with aggressive rodents. The study will be published in the Feb. 10 issue of the journal Science.
Cholesterol high in those at risk for heart ills
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People who are at highest risk for cardiovascular disease generally have the lowest level of control of high cholesterol levels, investigators report.
“Given the significance of cardiovascular disease as a public health problem in the US and the proven benefits of lipid-lowering therapy for primary prevention,” the researchers comment, “efforts to improve the treatment and control of (high cholesterol) and to eliminate disparities ... should be considered among our highest national healthcare quality improvement priorities.”
Stroke treatment safe at community hospitals
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The clot-busting drugs used to treat stroke can be given just as safely at small community hospitals as they can at large academic medical centers, researchers report in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke.
Most trials evaluating the risks and benefits of clot-busting therapy, or thrombolysis, have been conducted at major centers, so it was unclear how safe and effective this treatment was at community hospitals, say the investigators.
U.S. reports deaths of attention drug patients
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U.S. regulators were told of 24 deaths among patients who took Shire Pharmaceuticals Group Plc’s attention deficit drug Adderall through 2003, according to a report released on Wednesday.
Another 16 deaths were reported through 2003 in patients who took other attention deficit drugs known as methylphenidates, said the report prepared by Food and Drug Administration staff. Ten deaths were reported among other drugs in the amphetamine class, it said.
UK to vaccinate children against meningitis disease
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Britain is to introduce a new routine vaccination for young children to help protect against meningitis, blood poisoning and pneumonia in a move it says will save lives and stop hundreds of children becoming ill each year.
Britain’s top doctor, Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson, said on Wednesday the jab, to be given in three doses at two months, four months and again at 13 months, would target pneumococcal disease, one of the most common bacterial causes of ear infection.
Deadly bird flu detected in Nigerian outbreak
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An outbreak of bird flu among poultry in Nigeria is the H5N1 strain that can kill people, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said in a statement on Wednesday, the first time the virus has been found in Africa.
The OIE said it had detected a highly pathogenic form of H5N1 after testing at a laboratory in the Italian city of Padua. Suspicions about bird flu were raised after the deaths of thousands of birds in northern Nigeria in recent days.
Rethink of how toxins measured in cigarettes urged
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Scientists and a leading anti-smoking group called on Wednesday for an overhaul of how toxins in cigarette smoke are measured after industry documents showed how they can be used to deceive smokers.
Tar and nicotine content, the cancer-causing and addictive elements of cigarettes is tested on machines. But because of the way people smoke, blocking filters or taking deeper drags on so-called light or mild low tar brands, the levels they receive are actually higher than a machine reading would be.
Premature birth may affect adult personality
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Young adults who were born very prematurely tend to be more anxious and prone to depression than their peers, a new study suggests.
UK researchers found that among 18- and 19-year-olds, those who were born very prematurely - before the 33rd week of pregnancy - generally scored higher on a standard measure of “neuroticism.” That is, they were by nature more nervous, moody and lacking in self-esteem than their peers who were born full-term.
Older Women at Highest Risk for Hip Fractures, Least Likely to Get Screening
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A new study by Medical College of Wisconsin researchers has found that women who most need bone density testing to determine if they have osteoporosis are the least likely to get it. They are older women who are among the highest risk groups and who suffer most if they break a bone. The study is published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.
“Over half of hip fracture patients never regain their prior level of functioning and 20 percent of them require nursing home care,” according to Joan M. Neuner, M.D., M.P.H., lead author and assistant professor of medicine at the Medical College. Dr. Neuner is on the staff at Froedtert Hospital. “Women are very interested in preventing bone fractures. In an earlier study, 80 percent of women said they would “rather die” than enter a nursing home with a hip fracture.”
New tool to predict epidemics of malaria up to five months in advance
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A new tool to predict epidemics of malaria up to five months in advance has been developed by a scientist at the University of Liverpool.
The model uses predictions of climate variability to indicate the level of risk of an epidemic up to five months in advance of the peak malaria season - the earliest point at which predictions have ever been made. The model will assist doctors and health care providers in preventing and controlling the disease.
Hypertension control poorer in blacks than whites
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Better compliance with treatment could improve racial differences in how well patients keep high blood pressure under control, VA researchers report.
“Nonadherence to a hypertension treatment regimen is a significant barrier to achieving hypertension treatment goals and is quite prevalent,” Dr. Hayden B. Bosworth from the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, North Carolina, told Reuters Health.
Breastfeeding protects babies against lung disease
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Exclusive breastfeeding for at least the first six months of an infant’s life reduces the risk of respiratory tract infections, compared with breastfeeding for shorter durations, according to a new study.
The authors of the report, in the medical journal Pediatrics, point out that the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended a 6-month breastfeeding duration—in part, based on study findings showing protection against gastrointestinal infection. While it had been thought that this practice would also protect against respiratory tract infections, data supporting this was lacking.
