Surgeons are using a revolutionary implant to help rebuild the faces of children injured in accidents or born with serious defects.
Scientists from The University of Nottingham have teamed up with Russian researchers to create the honeycomb-like polymer which readily bonds with bone without causing adverse reactions.It is currently undergoing clinical trials in Moscow where it has been used on around fifty children aged from eighteen months to 18 years. Among the patients who have
An article appearing in the January 2005 issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity suggests that developing depression while on interferon-alpha plus ribavirin may impact how well the medications work.
In a study conducted in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine, Charles L. Raison, MD, Andrew Miller, MD, and colleagues, observed that patients who develop depressive symptoms during interferon-alpha plus ribavirin therapy were signi
How do you remember your own name? Is it possible ever to forget it? The memory trace, or engram, “feels” like it is stored permanently in the brain and it will never be forgotten.
Indeed, the current view of memory is that, at the molecular level, new proteins are manufactured, in a process known as translation, and it is these newly synthesized proteins that subsequently stabilize the changes underlying the memory. Thus, every new memory results in a permanent representation in
While children across the country are still trying to stick to their New Year’s resolutions to tidy their bedrooms every morning, building scientists are investigating whether a clutter could actually be the key to healthier living. Dr Stephen Pretlove, from Kingston University’s School of Architecture, is one of a group of specialists advising Britons to leave their beds unmade to banish house dust mites which cause asthma and other allergies. The scientists have discovered the mites cannot sur
The University of Surrey today announced that it is to lead a major European research initiative in the genetics of drug addiction, funded by an € 8.1 million contract from the European Commission. The effort brings together eight leading public and private research organisations with the aim of identifying genes involved in addiction and advancing the development of new treatment strategies for this serious disease.
Although the role of genetics in susceptibility to addiction has be
The best method for preventing HIV patients from developing drug resistance is a careful, dedicated adherence to their prescribed drug regimen, according to a long-term, large-scale study presented today in New York City at the American Medical Association Media Briefing, HIV/AIDS, The Drug Resistance Epidemic. Other key predictors of resistance include measures of how much virus was present in a person’s bloodstream at the start of therapy and how much their immune status was compromised
USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center oncologists are testing the effectiveness of a new drug against pancreatic cancer that targets the cancer from two directions.
In their National Cancer Institute-sponsored phase II clinical trial, researchers are evaluating how well BAY 43-9006 works alone and paired with gemcitabine, today’s standard chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer. Heinz-Josef Lenz, M.D., associate professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, is p
Steady five-year prevalence points to need for more rigorous evaluation
In a comparison of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use by adults in 1997 and 2002, researchers from Harvard Medical School found more than one in three U.S. adults (36.5 and 35.0 percent, respectively) used at least one form of CAM.
The continued widespread use of individual and multiple CAM therapies underscores the need to rigorously evaluate the safety, efficacy, and cost-effectivenes
A Mount Sinai School of Medicine led study is the first to suggest that Alzheimer’s disease may be slowed and possibly prevented through dietary changes
Researchers found that a low carbohydrate diet that reduced total caloric intake by 30% prevented the development of a fundamental feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in mice genetically engineered to develop the disease. The diet eliminated amyloid plaque development, which is the underlying pathology in AD. The study, p
Along with aiding efforts to study addicted smokers, a new drug that attaches only to areas of the brain that have been implicated in nicotine addiction may help studies of people battling other disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.
Developed by UC Irvine Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center scientists, the new drug – Nifrolidine – is a selective binding agent that identifies specific areas of the brain responsible for decision-making, learning and
Statement from the Naturally Nutrient Rich Coalition
The United States Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) today released the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans – science-based dietary guidance that is updated every five years by the government.
The 2005 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee indicated most Americans consume too many foods that are high in calories but low in nutrients. To address this concern, the new Guidelines reinfor
Ventricular assist devices (VADs), blood pumps used in heart failure situations, now have the potential for use in additional patient groups. Scientists and clinicians gathered at the 11th Congress of the International Society of Rotary Blood Pumps in Germany last year to discuss past lessons learned and future directions for this technology.
Increasing experience, better understanding, and advances in VADs now suggest that its smaller size offers an advantage in permitting its us
University of Michigan researchers are part of a team that has developed a new tool to assess the quality of home health care, with the goal of improving care and providing meaningful feedback about the care.
In the current issue of The Gerontologist, the team reports on home care quality indicators based on 22 measures. Home care agencies, governments and consumers can use the results of these 22 measures to evaluate the quality of home care. The assessment is a project of int
An innovative scheme is underway in the West of Scotland to combat depression. The new project, lead by a University of Glasgow researcher, adds structure to NHS care by integrating GP, patient and secondary care in the treatment of depression, and employs a novel electronic referral system that speeds up patient assessment.
Although the New Year is typically a time full of joy and optimistic hopes the future, many people experience seasonal ‘blues’. However, an ambitious projec
A group of researchers headed by Giovanni A. Fava (University of Bologna) reports on a new method for treating anxiety, well-being therapy, a psychotherapeutic strategy for increasing psychological well-being.
There is increasing awareness that the goal of treatment in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) should not simply be a response, but restoration of normal function. The aim of this study was to apply a novel psychotherapeutic approach for increasing the level of remission i
In a pilot randomized controlled trial a group of researchers of the Technion Institute of Technology (Israel) suggest the usefulness of pet therapy for improving apathy in schizophrenic patients. The paper was published in the January issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.
Anhedonia, a component of the negative symptom dimension and a core phenomenon in schizophrenia, is associated with poor social functioning and is resistant to treatment. We tested the hypothesis that animal-assisted
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