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Brain function changes could help diagnose and manage depression

Ever heard of the lateral habenula? Very few, outside of neuroscience, probably have. Yet a new study, published in the journal Neuron, shows that characteristic changes in the way this area of the brain fires can result in a total loss of will to do anything – which is characteristic of one form of depression.

29 Oct 2019

Facebook takes social media into preventive health – but is it private?

Facebook’s (FB) new Preventive Health Tool has been set up to connect its users to resources and reminders for health assessments in three major areas – heart disease and stroke, cancer, and seasonal influenza – thus making it easier for FB fans to remember to look after their health as well.

29 Oct 2019

Researchers find 221% increase in opioid-related drug overdoses in Connecticut

Opioid overdose deaths in Connecticut doubled in the past six years, largely driven by use of multiple drugs together, according to a team of researchers from the University of Connecticut and Yale University.

29 Oct 2019

Vaping-related deaths: analysis hints at THC as culprit

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have now received information on 34 deaths and over 1,600 cases of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (EVALI), as of October 22, 2019. This means over 120 new cases in just one week. The CDC has run a comprehensive analysis on 29 of the deaths.

29 Oct 2019

Botswana now the origin of humans

A group of scientists have reported their new theory that human life was first seen in northern Botswana, south of the Zambezi river in Africa, according to their article published in the journal Nature.

29 Oct 2019

Poverty, race have no impact on total knee replacement revision or failure

Previous studies have established that black patients have a higher risk for knee replacement revision. Black patients also report significantly more pain and worse joint function two years after surgery compared to white patients.

29 Oct 2019

Boozing leads to small brains or people with small brains drink more?

Research has shown that excessive alcohol use is associated with reduction in brain volume. Now a new study has shown that brain volume is associated genetically with a predisposition to excessive alcohol consumption.

29 Oct 2019

Rutgers selected to speed up development of biomedical health technologies

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey was selected as one of five new hubs under the National Institutes of Health's Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs program to speed up the translation of biomedical discoveries into commercially viable diagnostics, devices, therapeutics, and tools to improve patient care, enhance health, and train the next generation of innovators.

29 Oct 2019

UGA researcher working to correct penicillin allergy misconception

More than 30 million people in the United States wrongly believe they are allergic to penicillin - resulting in millions of dollars in added health care costs, adverse side effects from the use of more powerful antibiotics and a risk in the rise of dangerous antibiotic resistant infections.

29 Oct 2019

Researchers discover cause of new inherited form of pancreatitis

What began as a 51-year-old mystery comes down to a single gene, as researchers from the University of Chicago and University of California, San Francisco discovered the cause of a new inherited form of pancreatitis.

29 Oct 2019

A healthy diet also helps the environment

We have been advised time and again to eat a healthy and balanced diet. A new study has revealed that eating a healthy diet not only benefits the individual but also the environment. Researchers from the University of Oxford was published in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study is titled, “Multiple health and environmental impacts of foods”.

29 Oct 2019

Synthetic scaffolds could detect multiple types of cancers

Invasive procedures to biopsy tissue from cancer-tainted organs could be replaced by simply taking samples from a tiny "decoy" implanted just beneath the skin, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated in mice.

29 Oct 2019

Healthcare groups announce strong support for Mitigating Emergency Drug Shortages Act

The American Hospital Association, American Society of Anesthesiologists, American Society of Clinical Oncology, ASHP, and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices announced their strong support for the Mitigating Emergency Drug Shortages Act, introduced today by Senators Susan Collins and Tina Smith.

29 Oct 2019

Living through Hurricane Katrina linked to higher mortality rate among breast cancer patients

Breast cancer patients who endured Hurricane Katrina in 2005 have a 15% higher mortality rate than those patients not exposed to the storm, according to a University of Michigan researcher.

29 Oct 2019

Global warming predicted to increase undernutrition

Global warming may increase undernutrition through the effects of heat exposure on people, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine by Yuming Guo of Monash University, Australia, and colleagues.

29 Oct 2019

Study: Psychiatric diagnoses seldom used as entry criteria for NHS mental health services

A new study, published in the Journal of Mental Health, finds psychiatric diagnoses are seldom used as entry criteria for NHS mental health services in the UK.

29 Oct 2019

Prevalence of itch in dermatological patients linked to depression, suicidal ideation and stress

Itch is a very common symptom in patients suffering from skin diseases. In a new multicenter cross-sectional study on the psychological burden of itch in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, published by Elsevier, investigators report that the presence of itch in dermatological patients was significantly associated with clinical depression, suicidal ideation and stress.

29 Oct 2019

Houston Methodist neurologist offers three tips for better sleep

More than one-third of Americans get less than seven hours of sleep each night, putting them at risk for serious, chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. The real victim of a lack of sleep, however, is the brain.

29 Oct 2019

California fires illuminate trauma and resilience

Dorothy Hammack had planned to wash her thick, dark hair in the kitchen sink Friday morning. She couldn't yet shower, due to the incision on her breast from a biopsy a few days before. Her doctor had already called to let her know the results: She had breast cancer.

29 Oct 2019

Pitt, CMU researchers to develop all-in-one implantable device to record neural activity

The brain is a complex organ full of neurons that work together to help us move, feel, think, and more. A multidisciplinary group from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University is working to expand the amount of information researchers can receive from a neural interface device and received two grants from the National Science Foundation for their collaborative effort.

29 Oct 2019