Fatal poisonings involving paracetamol (acetaminophen) fell after a law introduced in the UK restricted the number of tablets that could be sold across the counter. But new research has concluded that this reduction may not have been a result of the change in the law.
Patients taking medications to treat bipolar disorder are more likely to get well faster and stay well if they receive intensive psychotherapy, according to results from the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD), funded by the National Institutes of Health?s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
The number of children and teenagers prescribed antidepressant medications appears to have decreased following public warnings about suicidal behavior potentially associated with the drugs, according to a report published in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, antidepressants are now more often prescribed to this age group by psychiatrists rather than primary care physicians.
People with physical disabilities endure substandard health care and a pervasive sense that they are a burden to doctors, according to a Northwestern University physician who is lead author of a commentary in JAMA. These patients often ram into roadblocks when they try to obtain basic care and life-saving diagnostic tests, reports Kristi Kirschner, M.D. Patients and health care workers have been injured because of inadequate facilities. Kirschner offers an overdue blueprint for change.
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center have been selected to participate in a collaborative initiative to develop a simple, affordable and rapid test to measure the immune systems of people infected with HIV/AIDS in developing countries. The four-year CD4 Initiative is conducted under the leadership of Imperial College London with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Children with autism do not receive the same quality of primary care as children with other special health care needs, according to research from the University of Minnesota Medical School.
For overweight and obese individuals, the incidence of asthma increases by 50 percent, as compared to those of normal weight, according to a meta-analysis of seven studies on severe asthma involving 333,102 patients.
Among a group of mostly older male veterans suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an illness that offers greater susceptibility to lung cancer, researchers found that the regular use of high-dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) lowered the risk of developing lung cancer.
The National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS) has today announced the award of six 2007 NICS Fellowships to help improve the use of evidence in six key health areas: stroke rehabilitation, mental health, reduction of birth defects, pain management, osteoporosis and Indigenous health.
Increasing folate supplementation to reduce neural tube defects through improved pre-conception care is the goal of Associate Professor Danielle Mazza who has just received a Fellowship co-sponsored by the National Institute of Clinical Studies and the Health and Medical Research Foundation of the Hospitals Contribution Fund of Australia.