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Off-label drug uses wasting millions, raising health risks

A recent study in Oregon suggests that drugs designed for treating the most severe mental illnesses are often prescribed at inappropriately low doses and at considerable expense, for use in conditions where their benefit has not been established.

4 Mar 2009

A second MND gene mutation in one year signifies rapid research progress

A collaborative research project involving Professor Christopher Shaw of the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London (KCL), Dr Tom Kwiatkowski at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Professor Robert H Brown at University of Massachusetts, has revealed that mutations in a gene called FUS (fused in sarcoma) cause familial Motor Neuron Disease (also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis).

26 Feb 2009

Doors open soon at new $360 million hospital with all-private rooms

When the doors to the new Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital open March 15, patients, their families and the community will find a health care experience unlike any other, offering the latest in medicine, technology and patient safety, integrated with wellness and prevention programs all under one roof.

25 Feb 2009

Parents 'avoid pregnancy' rather than face testing choices

Parents of children with genetic conditions may avoid the need to choose whether to undergo pre-natal testing or to abort future pregnancies by simply avoiding subsequent pregnancy altogether, a study has found.

15 Feb 2009

Noninvasive screening test may detect narrowing in intracranial stents

Great advances have been made in treating blockages in the arteries of the brain using angioplasty to widen the narrowed artery and a stent to hold the artery open.

15 Feb 2009

Boys have greater psychological well-being than girls

Self-concept may be defined as the totality of perceptions that each person has of themselves, and this self identity plays an important role in the psychological functioning of everyone.

3 Feb 2009

Physical self-concept and psychological well-being/unwellness during adolescence

Self-concept may be defined as the totality of perceptions that each person has of themselves, and this self identity plays an important role in the psychological functioning of everyone. To date, however, there has been no investigation into the relationship that physical self-concept has with psychological well-being or psychological unwellness.

3 Feb 2009

Study confirms persistence of diversity problems in academic medicine

A survey study believed to be one of the first efforts to put hard numbers around long-held beliefs about diversity in medical school faculties has affirmed that awareness and sensitivity to racial and ethnic diversity are believed by most faculty to be poor and even poorer among faculty who are members of underrepresented minorities.

2 Feb 2009

New findings on schizophrenia

Schizophrenia may blur the boundary between internal and external realities by overactivating a brain system that is involved in self-reflection, and thus causing an exaggerated focus on self, a new MIT and Harvard brain imaging study has found.

21 Jan 2009

Altered brain activity in schizophrenia may direct focus on self

19 Jan 2009

Kidney transplant survival can be long-term for people with HIV

A Johns Hopkins study finds that HIV-positive kidney transplant recipients could have the same one-year survival rates for themselves and their donor organs as those without HIV, provided certain risk factors for transplant failure are recognized and tightly managed.

19 Jan 2009

Women with sexual trauma from childhood gain strength in self-help groups

Violence against women is a public health problem globally. Knowledge within the health care system about abuse in childhood as a possible cause of illness is limited, and this can lead to misdiagnoses.

19 Jan 2009

Nitric oxide monitoring does not help most children with asthma

The level of nitric oxide (NO) in an asthmatic's exhaled breath can portend worsening asthma symptoms, and may even signify an imminent attack linked to underlying airway inflammation.

7 Jan 2009

Many babies with simple febrile seizures can avoid spinal tap

When babies develop a fever high enough or abrupt enough to cause a seizure, frightened parents often rush them to the emergency room, where their workup frequently includes a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to rule out bacterial meningitis.

6 Jan 2009

The culture of medicine

Everybody is familiar with the stereotypes of medical education from the student perspective: grueling hours, little recognition, and even less glory.

1 Jan 2009

Multi-faceted strategy improves nutritional support for ICU patients, but not outcomes

A strategy to change practice in intensive care units was effective in implementing earlier nutritional support for critically ill patients, but the change did not result in a reduced risk of death or reduced length of stay in the ICU, according to a study in the December 17 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

16 Dec 2008

Coping with a serious illness through the holidays

The holidays are generally considered to be a joyous time; however, for people coping with serious illnesses the holidays can bring unwanted stress.

16 Dec 2008

Improvement seen regarding racial disparities for liver transplantation, disparities for women remain

Following introduction of a new system in 2002 to determine the allocation of donated livers, black patients no longer are less likely to receive a liver transplant, but disparities for women remain, according to a study in the November 26 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

25 Nov 2008