Acute treatment of moderate to severe depression with hypericum extract WS 5570 (St John’s Wort): randomised controlled double blind non-inferiority trial versus paroxetine BMJ Online First
A specially manufactured extract from the herb St John’s Wort is at least as effective in treating depression as a commonly prescribed anti-depressant, according to new research published on bmj.com today.
St John’s Wort* and the anti-depressant drug Paroxetine** were used in
Rectal artemether versus intravenous quinine for the treatment of cerebral malaria in children in Uganda: randomised clinical trial BMJ Vol 330,pp 334-6/Editorial: Rectal artemether and intravenous quinine for treating severe malaria BMJ Vol 330,pp 317-8
A simple drug, given to children with severe malaria before they reach hospital, has the potential to save many lives, say researchers in this week’s BMJ. Every year over a million children die of malaria in Africa. The ma
Expanded HIV screening can increase patient life span, prevent the spread of the disease, and is cost effective, researchers at Yale, Harvard and the Massachusetts General Hospital report in the February 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
The study’s findings are part of a two-paper series in NEJM on the value of expanded HIV screening in the United States. The Yale/Harvard study used different data and methods than another study by VA, Duke and Stanford r
Millions of people at risk of becoming blind could one day be helped by an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology originally intended to understand semiconductor defects.
The project takes advantage of the Department of Energy lab’s proprietary content-based image retrieval technology, which is a method for sorting and finding visually similar images in large databases. Manufacturers of semiconductors have found this technology highly effective for rapidly scanning hundr
Researchers call for routine mouse allergy testing for inner-city children with asthma
The amount of mouse allergen found in the air in many inner-city homes could be high enough to trigger asthma symptoms in the children who live there, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. Their study, published in the February issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found more than a quarter of inner-city homes sampled had airborne allergen levels already kno
Researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) at the Free University of Brussels have recently published results that show promise in the quest for a new remedy for chronic urinary tract infections. The researchers have shown that administration of the sugar Heptyl-á-D-mannoside can prevent E. coli bacteria from binding to the wall of the urinary tract − which is the first step in the development of the infection.
A widespread problem
The spread of tuberculosis may have killed off leprosy in Europe in the Middle Ages, according to research published in the latest issue of the Royal Society Proceedings B.
A collaborative study led by University College London (UCL) scientists, following the discovery of a shrouded body in a sealed chamber overlooked by tomb robbers, found evidence of both diseases in a range of archaeological remains dating from the 1st to the 15th centuries.
An initial examination of
Scientists have given us another reason to eat carrots – a compound found in the popular root vegetable has been found to have an effect on the development of cancer.
A team of researchers, from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England and Denmark, found the natural pesticide falcarinol reduced the risk of cancer developing in rats by one third. Although experts have recommended that people eat carrots for their anti-cancer properties, it has not been known exactly what
Assay to be made commercially available
If you’re an organization dedicated to humane alternatives to the use of animals in research and you want to conduct research of your own that requires using animals as part of the testing, what do you do? In the case of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, you invent your own test.
PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D., announced today that PCRM has developed the world’s first cruelty-free insulin assay, a test u
Chronic nicotine exposure increases tangles in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease
UCI researchers have determined that chronic nicotine exposure worsens some Alzheimer’s-related brain abnormalities, contradicting the common belief that nicotine can actually be used to treat the disease.
In the latest online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers report that chronic nicotine exposure increases neurofibrillary tangles – the bundles
A new version of Overcoming Bulimia, the self-help CD-ROM which uses the proven cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) approach to the treatment of bulimia has been launched by Media Innovations Ltd, to coincide with National Eating Disorders Awareness Week which takes place on 6-12 February 2005.
The new version of the CD-ROM is based on feedback from clinicians who regularly use the package to treat patients and from patients themselves. The CD-ROM has been designed to address the
The eyes are not only a mirror of a soul, but also a medical record. Their thermal radiation can indicate a disease even before clinical signs appear. Investigations in this area conducted by Russian scientists have been supported by the research program of the Russian Academy of Sciences called “Abstract Sciences for Medicine”.
Russian biophysicists under the guidance of G.R. Ivanitsky, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, are developing the system for rapid dis
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified the mechanisms behind the serious, congenital heart condition that can sometimes develop in children of women with a rheumatic disease.
This serious form of congenital heart disease, known as AV heart block, develops when a certain type of antibody is transferred from the mother to the foetus during pregnancy. The antibodies are targeted against endogenous proteins and cause the inflammation and calcification of the foetal ca
Project A.L.S. funds breakthrough research
A significant proportion of patients suffering from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease or motor neuron disease, have a marker of retrovirus activity in their blood, reports the February 8 issue of the medical journal Neurology. The study was led by Dr. Jeremy A. Garson of University College London, UK and Dr. Ammar Al-Chalabi of King’s College London, UK, and was funded in full by Project A.L.S.
Physicians found that signs, symptoms and identifiable risk factors are absent in more than half of the mothers of infants with congenital toxoplasmosis in a national study of children with this disease.
More than half of the pregnant women who were at risk for acute infection with Toxoplasma gondii could not be identified by history or routine examination. Therefore, the physicians recommend that systematic screening for acute acquired toxoplasmosis for all pregnant women in the U
The severity of possible infection and the effectiveness of a vaccine weighed heavily in the decision-making process for parents reporting their views on childhood vaccination for sexually transmitted diseases.
The analysis of 278 parental views on STD vaccination for children was reported in the Feb.7 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine by researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine.
In an ongoing series of studies, lead author Greg
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