While use of home remedies is common among people 65 and older, blacks and Native Americans tend to make much greater use of them than whites, according to a study from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

And the explanation seems to be cultural differences rather than access to health care, economic hardship or health status, said Joseph G. Grzywacz, Ph.D., and colleagues, writing in the January-February issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior.

Prostaglandins – the fat-derived compounds linked to pain, inflammation, reproduction and cancer – can add another biological function to their extensive catalog.

A new study by Vanderbilt researchers reveals that prostaglandins help choreograph the intricate cell movements during early embryonic development in zebrafish, highlighting how perturbations in this pathway might influence human development and the spread of cancer. The results also may point to new molecular targets f

Phase one of a four-phase, six-year study on treatments for depression – the largest of its kind and led by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center – showed nearly half fully recovered from their symptoms or had major improvement after treatment with an antidepressant medication.

Results of the study, involving nearly 3,000 patients at 41 sites, appear in the January issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, include: A third of patients with major depress

Long-term, population-based study challenges FDA advisory

The risk of serious suicide attempts or death by suicide generally decreases in the weeks after patients start taking antidepressant medication, according to a new study led by Group Health Cooperative researchers and published in the January issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry. The study also found that the risk of suicidal behavior after starting 10 newer antidepressant medications is less than the risk posed by ol

Findings highlight need for screening and treatment

According to a study that appears in the January 1 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Minnesota found that night eating syndrome is a common disorder among psychiatric outpatients and is associated with substance use and obesity.

Night eating syndrome is a condition that is characterized by two main features: excessive eat

Findings provide potential strategy to improve therapeutic vaccines, T cell immunotherapy

Like boxers wearied by a 15-round bout, the immune system’s CD8 T cells eventually become “exhausted” in their battle against persistent viral infection, and less effective in fighting the disease.

In a study to be published Dec. 28 on the journal Nature’s website, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Emory University have traced the problem to a gene that turns off the

Recovery of injured and diseased tissue the ultimate goal

According to a study to be published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulation Physiology, a typical course of hyperbaric oxygen treatments increases by eight-fold the number of stem cells circulating in a patient’s body. Stem cells, also called progenitor cells are crucial to injury repair. The study currently appears on-line and is scheduled for publication in the April 2006 edition of the American Jou

When pouring liquor, even professional bartenders unintentionally pour 20 to 30 percent more into short, squat glasses than into tall, thin ones, according to a new Cornell University study.

“Yet, people who pour into short, wide glasses consistently believe that they pour less than those who pour into tall, narrow glasses,” said Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing, Applied Economics and of Nutritional Science at Cornell. “And education, practice, concentration a

A Mayo Clinic study has found patients report less back pain at rest and while active following vertebroplasty, a procedure in which medical cement is injected into painful compression fractures in the spinal vertebrae due to osteoporosis. Patients also reported improved function in their daily activities, such as walking, housework and getting dressed. The findings are published in the November/December issue of American Journal of Neuroradiology.

“These findings give us as good eviden

Over the past decade, parents, educators and policy makers have become increasingly concerned about verbal and physical harassment in schools and the subsequent effects of peer victimization on teens. A recent study by Julie C. Rusby and colleagues from the Oregon Research Institute, published in the November 2005 issue of the Journal of Early Adolescence by SAGE Publications, found significant associations between peer harassment of students in middle school and a variety of problem behaviors, such

A multidisciplinary international consortium will study the secrets of sleep disorders applying new methods.

Dr. Tarja Porkka-Heiskanen (Stenberg) MD, PhD, at the Institute of Biomedicine, University of Helsinki, coordinates a new EU-funded project, which addresses the mechanisms of sleep regulation. The “Enough Sleep” – project is a forerunner in combining several research disciplines into an integrated program and incorporating a company to develop commercial products based on

Fish have menopause, study determines; menopausal period not affected by evolution

A UC Riverside-led research team has found that as some populations of an organism evolve a longer lifespan, they do so by increasing only that segment of the lifespan that contributes to “fitness” – the relative ability of an individual to contribute offspring to the next generation.

Focusing on guppies, small fresh-water fish biologists have studied for long, the researchers found th

For many years, scientists thought gene activity was relatively straightforward: Genes were transcribed into messenger RNA, which was processed and translated into the proteins of the body. Certainly, there were many factors governing the transcription process, but gene control happened at the level of the DNA.

In the past few years, however, evidence for a more nuanced understanding of the total genetic system has steadily accumulated. Researchers at The Wistar Institute and els

Young men can be aggressive – even during the season of goodwill. Now, a new study by University of East London (UEL) psychologist Tom Dickins shows how patterns of male aggression vary with sexual orientation.

According to the findings of the study, forthcoming in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, homosexual men score higher for empathy and show significantly lower levels of physical aggression than heterosexual men.

However they do show similar level

The animal kingdom’s family tree is beginning to look a little bushy.

Two decades ago, with the advent of methods to look at the family relationships of different organisms by analyzing DNA, scientists envisioned it would only be a matter of time before the various family trees for plants, animals, fungi and their kin would be resolved with genetic precision.

And while molecular methods have had enormous success in ordering some branches in the tree of life — ma

Finding out why seemingly healthy people experience ventricular fibrillation, a fatal irregular heart rhythm, could eventually lead to better methods of early detection, according to a Medical College of Georgia researcher.

“We don’t know what starts ventricular fibrillation or why defibrillation – electrically shocking the heart back into beating normally – works to correct it,” says Dr. Autumn Schumacher, a new faculty member in the MCG School of Nursing who recently won the Am