Professional Medical News from Leading Journals

01/19/2006

Leptin May Act As Antidepressant in the Brain

The fat cell-secreted hormone leptin, originally associated with body weight regulation, may also function as an antidepressant, according to a report published online Jan. 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.

01/19/2006

Depression Treatment Less Likely for Older Heart Patients

Older patients with cardiovascular disease, and heart failure in particular, are less likely to be actively treated for depression than older patients without heart failure, according to a study in the January issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

01/18/2006

Cutting Copays for Cholesterol Drugs May Save Money

If copayments for cholesterol-lowering therapy were eliminated or reduced for those patients most in need, it could boost compliance and save up to $1 billion a year by reducing hospitalizations and use of emergency departments, according to a study in the January issue of the American Journal of Managed Care.

01/18/2006

Tailored Therapy Helps HIV+ Patients Quit Smoking

Smoking cessation treatment can help people living with HIV/AIDS kick the smoking habit, according to a study in the Jan. 9 issue of AIDS. And individually tailored programs can significantly increase abstinence from smoking, the researchers found.

01/18/2006

U.S. Hospitals Offering Bariatric Surgery on the Rise

While 8.5% of hospitals in the United States offered bariatric surgery in 1997, that number climbed to 23% in 2003, with most hospitals performing more than 100 procedures per year, researchers report in the Jan. 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

01/18/2006

Cell Division in Neurons May Trigger Alzheimer Disease

Alzheimer disease may be triggered when adult neurons attempt to divide, according to the results of a study in mice published in the Jan. 18 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Cell cycle-related proteins appear in the brain prior to the development of amyloid beta plaques, the authors say.

01/17/2006

Severe Obesity Up 400% in Canada in Recent Decades

Like other developed nations, overweight and obesity have increased steadily and markedly in Canada since 1985, according to an analysis of data from seven national surveys published in the Jan. 17 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

01/17/2006

Vertebroplasty May Increase Risk for Adjacent Fractures

The use of vertebroplasty to heal stress fractures caused by osteoporosis may increase the risk of new fractures in adjacent vertebrae, according to a report in the January issue of the American Journal of Neuroradiology.

01/17/2006

Aspirin Therapy Reduces Cardiovascular Events

Aspirin reduces the risk of cardiovascular events in men and women without cardiovascular disease, researchers report in the Jan. 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

01/16/2006

Leptin Boosts Ability to Fight Infection During Starvation

Starvation weakens the body's ability to fight bacteria, and a new study in mice suggests that a drop in leptin may be the reason why. Administering the "obesity hormone" to fasting animals boosted their ability to clear Streptococcus pneumoniae from the lungs, according to a report in the Jan. 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

01/16/2006

Skin Disease Patients May Be at Risk of Osteoporosis

Many patients who take glucocorticoids for chronic skin diseases are not receiving concomitant bisphosphonate therapy recommended by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) to reduce their risk of glucocorticoid-associated osteoporosis, according to a small study published in the January issue of the Archives of Dermatology.

01/13/2006

Cilia in Brain Help New Neurons Find Their Way

In the adult brain, new neurons migrate along a flow of cerebrospinal fluid created by the beating cilia of epithelial cells, according to the results of a study in mice published in the Jan. 12 issue of Science. The flow allows the neurons to migrate from the subventricular zone along the walls of the lateral ventricle to the olfactory bulb.

01/13/2006

Filling Rx Overseas Could Lead to Confusion, FDA Warns

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers this week that filling prescriptions in foreign countries or online can be hazardous as there are at least 105 U.S. drugs with trade names that look or sound similar to foreign medications. For example, the sleeping pill Ambien could be mistaken for Amyben in the United Kingdom, a drug used to treat heart arrhythmias.

01/13/2006

Electroconvulsive Therapy Combats Extreme Depression

All effective treatments for depression, including electroconvulsive therapy and antidepressant drugs, should be welcomed in the fight against the debilitating disease, according to a seminar published in the Jan. 14 issue of The Lancet.

01/13/2006

Blockade of Fat Hormone May Help Treat Multiple Sclerosis

Blocking the obesity hormone leptin benefits mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the animal model of human multiple sclerosis, according to a study published online Jan. 12 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The finding suggests that blocking leptin might potentially treat multiple sclerosis, the authors say.

01/13/2006

Nearly 40% of Arkansas Children Overweight

Thirty-eight percent of children in Arkansas are overweight or at risk for overweight, according to a report in the Jan. 13 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The findings suggest the state has "a more severe problem than that reported for other states," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

01/13/2006

Nearly 54,000 U.S. Children Accidentally OD Each Year

Almost 54,000 young children received emergency treatment in U.S. hospitals for accidental medication overdoses each year between 2001 and 2003, according to findings published in the Jan. 13 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

01/12/2006

Plant-Derived Plague Vaccine Protects Guinea Pigs

A plague vaccine that can be grown efficiently and in large amounts in tobacco plants is highly effective at preventing infection in animal studies, according to findings published Jan. 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The method will hopefully be used for human vaccination.

01/11/2006

High Homocysteine Tied to Low Bone Density in Women

High homocysteine and low folate levels are associated with low bone mineral density (BMD) in middle-aged and elderly women, Norwegian researchers report in the Jan. 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

01/11/2006

Tiny Region of Brain Stem Controls Response to Cold

Human thermoregulatory responses to cold temperatures can be pinpointed to a small region in the medulla, according to a study in the Jan. 9 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.

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