A study published in the October 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM) finds that modafinil is well-tolerated in the treatment of excessive sleepiness associated with disorders of sleep and wakefulness such as shift work sleep disorder, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and narcolepsy, and does not affect cardiovascular or sleep parameters.
According to results of a survey presented at the 72nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology, nighttime acid reflux, along with some of the less typical manifestations or symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), is associated with significant sleep impairment.
Many people may not realize that symptoms such as chronic cough or chest pain can be caused by acid reflux into the esophagus, because they do not experience classic heartburn symptoms or acid regurgitation.
Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who also suffer from depression often find that continued use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) relieves them of symptoms of depression, according to a study published in the October 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM).
Patients have on average a 71 percent lower chance of dying at the nation’s top-rated hospitals compared with the lowest-rated hospitals across 18 procedures and conditions analyzed in the tenth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study, issued today by HealthGrades, the healthcare ratings company. The study, which documents a wide variation in the quality of care between the highest-performing hospitals and all others, also found that if all hospitals performed at the level of hospitals rated with five stars by HealthGrades, 266,604 Medicare lives could potentially have been saved over the three years studied.
Science has found one likely contributor to the way that some folks eat to live and others live to eat. Researchers at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, have found that people with genetically lower dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps make behaviors and substances more rewarding, find food to be more reinforcing than people without that genotype. In short, they are more motivated to eat and they eat more.
A new analysis of randomized controlled trials evaluating probiotics in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has found that Bifantis®, Bifidobacterium infantis 35624, the sole ingredient in Align® (manufactured by Procter & Gamble), is the only probiotic currently able to demonstrate significant improvement in IBS symptoms based upon a properly designed research study.
A team of international researchers reported they have identified a group of cell-signaling proteins found in blood that serve as a unique “voiceprint” that can not only be used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, but also classify and predict presymptomatic individuals who will eventually develop the memory-robbing disorder.
A study published in the October 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM) features the Cleveland Adolescent Sleepiness Questionnaire (CASQ), a new self-completed instrument to measure excessive daytime sleepiness in adolescents.
A new study by Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University researchers reported that 18 percent of 500 candidates for bariatric surgery did not receive the initial psychiatry clearance for the surgery. The study is the first to examine the reliability of decisions to clear candidates for surgery, and the largest to determine the percentage of candidates who are not cleared, and detail the reasons for exclusion.