When a pharmaceutical company puts drug samples into the hands of residents as a form of marketing, how does it influence their prescribing behavior? To what extent are treatment decisions based on which samples are available and further, what are the implications for patient care as well as resident education? While this is a frequently debated issue, there has been little objective data describing how drug samples affect resident physicians. In a study published in the August issue of The America
Happy, sad, angry, scared: Some of us are good at hiding these everyday emotions, while others are unable to disguise them. Whether subtle or intense, facial expressions are the key to how we identify human emotion.
Most studies of how we recognize facial expressions have used static models of intense expressions. But new research indicates that facial motion—seeing the range of movement in the arching of an eyebrow or the curve of a smile—is in fact an extremely important part of w
Study sets foundation for new generation of vaccines for HIV, influenza
Scientists have taken a major step toward the goal of altering viruses, bacteria and tumor cells so that they demand attention from immune cells designed to destroy them. According to research published today in the journal Immunity, researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center have determined for the first time a single biochemical feature of disease-causing molecules (pathogens) that, if chang
Scientists at University College London (UCL) have developed a method of tracking someone’s stream of consciousness based on their brain activity alone. In a study published in the latest issue of Current Biology, the UCL team found that brain activity measured in volunteers who were viewing a visual illusion could be used to accurately track their subjective experience while it underwent many spontaneous changes
In the study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, John-Dylan Haynes and Gerai
Blinking temporarily switches off parts of your brain, according to a study published in the latest issue of Current Biology. The University College London (UCL) team found that the brain actively shuts down parts of the visual system each time you blink, even if light is still entering the eyes. Their findings could explain why you don’t notice your own blinks.
Scientists from the UCL Institute of Neurology designed a special device to study the effects of blinking on the brain.
A testosterone patch may produce modest increases in sexual desire and frequency of satisfying sexual experiences in women who develop distressful, low sexual desire following hysterectomy and removal of the fallopian tubes and ovaries, according to a study in the July 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Diminished sexual desire has been reported by 30 to 50 percent of women who undergo surgical menopause (menopause induced by the surgi
A paper in this month’s PLoS Medicine concludes that socioeconomic position in adulthood can significantly affect later health. Nancy Krieger and colleagues from Harvard School of Public Health studied 308 pairs of adult female twins from San Francisco who had been raised together until at least age 14. They found that identical twins who had differing socioeconomic position in adulthood differed in their later health.
In identical twins who differed in social class in adulthood,
Two recent studies suggest that multiple rare mutations within a single gene may increase risk for autism, according to investigators with the Vanderbilt Center for Molecular Neuroscience and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development
While debate still rages over the ’cause’ of autism, mounting evidence suggests that genetic factors play a major role in the disease. Two recent studies led by James Sutcliffe, Ph.D., and Randy Blakely, Ph.D., inves
U-M Health System study finds patient education video is excellent teaching tool but doctors are better at calming fears
In an age when people often learn health information from surfing the Web and watching television shows set in hospitals, researchers have found that showing patients an educational video about their condition teaches them the facts about their disease even better than when their doctor tells them about the condition.
But the power of videotaped infor
A mixture of bacteria developed in part by University of Alberta researchers has been proven highly effective in treating people suffering from ulcerative colitis.
The findings, published in the July, 2005 issue of American Journal of Gastroenterology showed that the majority of patients taking a probiotic mixture of 8 bacteria (VSL#3) for 6 weeks improved their ulcerative colitis. Probiotics are preparations of living microbial cells that, when ingested, are thought to posit
Brain’s amygdala plays pivotal role during an emotional experience, strengthening connections between neurons
A research team led by UC Irvine neuroscientists has identified how the brain processes and stores emotional experiences as long-term memories. The research, performed on rats, could help neuroscientists better understand why emotionally arousing events are remembered over longer periods than emotionally neutral events, and may ultimately find application in treatments
University of Cincinnati (UC) environmental health researchers have found that 17 percent of infants living near “stop and go” traffic suffer from wheezing.
The study is the first of its kind to analyze the effects of “stop and go” bus and truck diesel traffic versus highway traffic on infant respiratory health.
Published in the August issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, results of the four-year study suggest that the type of traffic and distance from
Workers in salt factories, who inhale large amounts of salt particles, are at risk of high blood pressure due to the increased salt intake. A study published today in the Open Access journal Environmental Health shows for the first time that breathing in large quantities of salt particles has just the same effect on blood pressure as eating a salty diet. Wearing face masks and plastic eyeglasses is enough to protect workers who are highly exposed to salt from salt-related high blood pressure.
Choosing a hospital that either performs many cystectomies–the surgical removal of the urinary bladder–or has a high nurse-to-patient ratio minimizes post-operative complications after the procedure, according to a new study. The report, published in the September 1, 2005 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, indicates that post-operative mortality and complications were reduced by up to 75 percent in the best-case scenarios.
This year more
Clues looking into the root causes of alcoholism are emerging from new findings that center on the genetic patterns of young drinkers, with particular focus on why adolescents are more likely to drink large quantities of alcohol even if they need more alcohol to get the effects they desire.
“The study offers a unique perspective on the beginnings of the alcohol experience and usage patterns of 12-year-olds,” explained principal investigator Marc Schuckit, M.D., professor of psych
Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have uncovered a crucial molecular link between a viral infection and development of a common and fatal form of liver cancer. In the process, they have identified a possible way to treat this disease as well as a number of other cancers.
In findings reported in the journal Molecular Cell, the researchers traced the pathway by which the hepatitis B virus (HBV) leads to development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
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