Shock therapy, a controversial practice conjuring frightening images of behavior control, still has a place in schizophrenia treatment, a newly updated research review shows.
Although the data confirmed that antipsychotic drugs are still the first choice for schizophrenia treatment, they also showed that electroconvulsive, or shock, therapy clearly works, and combining both treatments can accelerate benefits to some patients, the review finds.
Dr. Prathap Tharyan, head of
A type of noninvasive “virtual colonoscopy” can diagnose medium to large polyps as well as traditional colorectal probes can, but it may miss some smaller yet potentially cancerous growths, according to a new review of studies.
The review — limited to comparing the traditional procedure to use of computer tomography as a method — also finds that despite seeming advantage for the person being screened, there is no evidence that availability of the CT scan results in more screenin
Although dentists in many developed countries recommend check-ups at six-month intervals, there are no high quality data to support this recommendation.
Dental health is an important part of a person’s overall health, and catching problems early can make treatment much easier to perform. The oral health of the population in many countries has improved dramatically over the last three decades. This fact, coupled with the cost of check-ups and the scarcity of dentists, means that i
Heparansulfate, which is needed for normal fetal development among other things, is also important for the build-up of amyloid, morbid protein deposits that appear in several serious diseases. This is shown by Uppsala scientists in an article published in today’s Net edition of the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Heparansulfate, long chains of sugar molecules, is produced by most cells in the body. It was not previously known that heparansulfate is ne
An investigational drug is producing powerful responses in patients resistant to Gleevec, the targeted therapy that helps most people diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), an international research team headed by investigators at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is reporting.
The drug, AMN107, is showing an increasingly strong benefit as doses are being steadily raised, say the researchers, who presented their latest analysis at the annual meeting
New research has revealed the power behind an anti-tumor agent being studied in the laboratory. The findings, by scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the National Cancer Institute, could lead to more effective treatment strategies for cancer.
“Our new understanding of how this agent works could help us combine treatments to reach multiple targets,” said William Gmeiner, Ph.D., professor of cancer biology at Wake Forest’s School of Medicine, which is pa
Removing the aortic and pelvic lymph nodes during surgery for advanced ovarian cancer improves progression-free survival but not overall survival, according to a new study in the April 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer in women worldwide. In the United States, about 25,000 women were diagnosed with the disease in 2004 and 16,000 women died from it. Long-term survival is possible after surgery and chemotherapy
A compound derived from cottonseed oil could help improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy at treating head and neck cancer, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found.
The findings, which will be presented Tuesday, April 19, at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, could lead to a treatment that provides an effective option to surgically removing the cancer, helping patients preserve vital organs involved in speech a
Infants who are hospitalized with severe breathing problems may benefit from being placed on their stomachs rather than their backs, according to a new review of recent studies.
Children in the studies who were placed on their stomachs had higher blood oxygen levels and slower breathing rates than those placed on their backs, the review found.
Blood oxygen levels in the stomach-placed infants were about 2 percent higher than in the back-sleeping infants, a small but s
A collaboration between Johns Hopkins and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists has mathematically demonstrated that a national matching program for kidney paired donation, also called paired kidney exchange, would ensure the best possible kidney for the greatest number of recipients who have incompatible donors. Kidney paired donation (KPD) provides organs to patients who have a willing, designated donor who is not compatible. A kidney from such a donor is matched to — and transplant
Researchers have closed a randomized clinical trial comparing gefitinib (IressaTM) vs. placebo following chemotherapy and radiation for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that had spread only to nearby tissues or lymph nodes. Review of interim data indicated that gefitinib would not improve survival.
The clinical trial was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and was conducted by a network
As body mass index goes up, so does the risk of tearing meniscus
America’s expanding waistline is straining its knees–and pocketbook–with hundreds of thousands of overweight people undergoing surgery every year because the extra pounds they pack are leading to tears in their meniscal cartilage.
In the first major study of its kind, University of Utah School of Medicine researchers found the likelihood of tearing the meniscus, the cartilage that bears much of the load o
The federal government should create and fund an umbrella organization called the United States Global Health Service (GHS) to mobilize the nation’s best health care professionals and other experts to help combat HIV/AIDS in hard-hit African, Caribbean, and Southeast Asian countries, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Full-time, salaried professionals would make up the organization’s pivotal “service corps,” working side by side with other colleagues al
Men estimate men’s risks of common disorders higher than women do, and vice versa
New research from University of Glasgow researchers on lay perceptions about gender differences in health reveals that both men and women believe health risks are higher for their own sex than for the opposite sex. But, it also shows that males think that men are fitter and females think women are more athletic.
Professor Sally Macintyre in the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed a breakthrough technology that identifies molecular markers in early lung cancer.
The new technology, created in collaboration with SEQUENOM, developers of genetic analysis products, and Methexis Genomics, uses a DNA analysis technique called methylation profiling to detect cells in the lung that are likely to become cancerous.
There are a number of genetic mechanisms that can alter the characteristics of a normal
Long term use of calcium supplements provides a protective effect that lasts for years against development of potentially precancerous colon polyps, researchers at Dartmouth Medical School say.
Their study, presented at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, found that patients in the treatment group of a randomized trial of calcium supplements had a 36 percent reduction in polyp formation in the five years after the end of the trial, compared t
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