Disability News and Research

RSS

Veterans' health care costs are a big part of federal budget

Though the withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan will save the nation billions of dollars a year, another cost of war is projected to continue rising for decades to come: caring for the veterans.

29 Jul 2011

First Edition: July 28, 2011

In today's headlines, reports about the ever-growing US health health care tab and about the petition filed by a conservative legal center to bring their health law challenge to the Supreme Court.

28 Jul 2011

Cognitive behavioral therapy and self-help may improve unexplained symptoms of pain, fatigue

A new type of therapy may help people with symptoms such as pain, weakness, or dizziness that can't be explained by an underlying disease, according to a study published in the July 27, 2011, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

28 Jul 2011

Efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, NTDs should be integrated

"The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) produce a devastating level of chronic disability in sub-Saharan Africa, with some estimates suggesting that the NTD disease burden exceeds tuberculosis and is one-half that of malaria," Julie Noblick and Richard Skolnick of George Washington University and Peter Hotez of the Sabin Vaccine Institute write in a PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases editorial.

28 Jul 2011

Researchers draw on ontology to define pain

All over the world, patients with chronic pain struggle to express how they feel to the doctors and health-care providers who are trying to understand and treat them. Now, a University at Buffalo psychiatrist is attempting to help patients suffering from chronic pain and their doctors by drawing on ontology, the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of being or existence.

28 Jul 2011

Aetna second-quarter operating earnings increase to $522.8 million

Aetna today announced second-quarter 2011 operating earnings of $522.8 million, or $1.35 per share, a per share increase of 29 percent over 2010.

27 Jul 2011

As partisan debt-ceiling disputes continue, entitlement reform haunts discussion

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner each delivered prime time addresses Monday night, capping an extraordinary day of partisan debt-ceiling dueling. As the clock continues to tick toward the Aug. 2 deadline, specifics from the two very different plans emerged — one offered by House Republicans and the other by Senate Democrats.

27 Jul 2011

Researchers investigate the nature of stuttering

Radio-TV-Film senior Alex Murphy has a knack for storytelling through short stories, poetry and screenwriting. One of his undergraduate classes was a professional communication course, which requires students to deliver oral presentations in class.

27 Jul 2011

First Edition: July 26, 2011

In her latest Kaiser Health News consumer column, Michelle Andrews writes: "In the controlled chaos of an hospital emergency department, ensuring that patients are pain-free and can make informed choices about their care often takes a back seat to assessing and stabilizing them and moving them through the system as fast as possible.

26 Jul 2011

Anesthetic agent isoflurane may treat intracerebral hemorrhage

The anesthetic agent isoflurane may be a useful treatment for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH)—a type of stroke caused by bleeding inside the brain, reports a study in the August issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society.

26 Jul 2011

Fragile X syndrome study to reveal more

Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability in the world. Medical experts, including the Mater Hospital's Dr Helen Heussler, are today launching a new push to uncover the secrets of a disorder that affects a child born in Australia every week. Fragile X is passed from parent carriers who often exhibit very few symptoms. Estimates suggest more than 100,000 Australians either carry the gene mutation that causes Fragile X or have the syndrome, yet the vast majority have not been diagnosed, according to the Fragile X Association of Australia.

25 Jul 2011

Biogen Idec's FAMPYRA receives EU conditional approval for treating functional impairment in MS

Biogen Idec announced today it has received conditional approval from the European Commission for FAMPYRA® (prolonged-release fampridine tablets) to improve walking in adult patients with multiple sclerosis who have walking disability.

25 Jul 2011

Homeless people report using street drugs to treat their pain

Chronic pain is not managed well in the general population and it's an even greater challenge for homeless people, according to new research by St. Michael's Hospital.

22 Jul 2011

Blue-collar workers with arthritis in much worse health than all other workers

While more Americans are working past age 65 by choice, a growing segment of the population must continue to work well into their sixties out of financial necessity. Research conducted by the Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine looked at aging, social class and labor force participation rates to illustrate the challenges that lower income workers face in the global marketplace.

22 Jul 2011

Insight into Fragile X Syndrome and autism

Researchers now have a much clearer understanding of how mutations in a single gene can produce the complex cognitive deficits characteristic of Fragile X Syndrome, the most common inherited form of intellectual disability.

22 Jul 2011

Subsidizing wages at group homes would likely reduce worker turnover rates

Subsidizing the wages of caregivers at group homes would likely reduce worker turnover rates and help contain costs at long-term care facilities, according to new University of Illinois research.

22 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: Will Gang of Six compromise work?; endorsing birth control recommendations; Minn. budget deal

Not surprisingly, the plan has drawn complaints from the left about cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and from the right about defense cuts and tax increases. But the senators are right about the need to simplify and broaden the tax code and to put entitlements on a sustainable footing without slashing aid to the most vulnerable.

22 Jul 2011

High cost of multiple sclerosis drugs

According to a study released this Wednesday, drugs used in the hope of slowing multiple sclerosis progression may help some patients, but at a very high cost.

21 Jul 2011

Children and adults with social withdrawal due to Fragile X may benefit from STX209

Children and adults with social withdrawal due to Fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability and the most common known single gene cause of autism, may benefit from an experimental drug under study by pediatric neurologists at Rush Children's Hospital at Rush University Medical Center.

21 Jul 2011

Localized one-time gene therapy might effectively protect against atherosclerosis

A one-dose method for delivering gene therapy into an arterial wall effectively protects the artery from developing atherosclerosis despite ongoing high blood cholesterol.

21 Jul 2011