Culture

CHICAGO – An analysis of nearly 30 studies including more than 300,000 patients finds that depression is associated with a significantly increased risk of developing stroke and dying from stroke, according to an article in the September 21 issue of JAMA.

We like to think that others agree with us. It's called "social projection," and it helps us validate our beliefs and ourselves. Psychologists have found that we tend to think people who are similar to us in one explicit way—say, religion or lifestyle—will act and believe as we do, and vote as we do. Meanwhile, we exaggerate differences between ourselves and those who are explicitly unlike us.

The American Geological Institute's Workforce Program today released an analysis of salaries for geoscientists by industry relative to those of other scientific fields. Geoscience Currents 51 shows that in 2010, average aggregated salaries for geoscience-related occupations ranged from $137,660 for geoscience-related occupations in the finance and insurance industry to $69,949 for geoscience-related occupations in state government.

Move if you have back pain, this is the advice of a researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. Patients with acute low back pain who were advised to stay active despite the pain fared better than those who were told to adjust their activity in line with their pain.

Insurance can help farmers to survive dry periods but it can also result in the long term in overgrazing and therefore threaten their existence if insurance companies pay out in periods of moderate drought and farmers change their management strategies as a result, according to the world's first study on the ecological effects of rain-index insurance.

CHICAGO – Endovenous laser treatment (EVLT) and high ligation and stripping (HLS) are both associated with effectiveness and safety in treatment of insufficiency of the great saphenous vein (GSV), but EVLT is more frequently associated with recurrences, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Despite improvements in treating heart attack patients needing emergency artery-opening procedures, delays still occur, particularly in transferring patients to hospitals that can perform the procedure, according to a study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Fast response is critical for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. This severe heart attack is caused by a complete blockage of blood supply to the heart. More than 250,000 people suffer a STEMI each year.

The biotech industry boosted farming across the globe to the tune of almost $65 billion during the period 1996 to 2009, according to the latest analysis published in the International Journal of Biotechnology. $65 billion is the increase in net farm income, the farm level benefit after paying for the seed and its biotech traits. The study's authors estimate that almost half of that was derived by farmers in the developing world.

Routine screening for depression in primary care patients has not been shown to be beneficial or an effective use of scarce health care resources, which would be better focused on providing more consistent treatment of people with depression, concludes an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/site/embargo/cmaj111035.pdf.

Despite the implementation of the Massachusetts health care reform designed to bolster employer-based insurance and to provide no-cost or low-cost insurance to those unable to afford it, the uninsured in Massachusetts remain predominantly the working poor, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School just published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

More species could be saved from extinction under climate change thanks to a new model scientists have developed to guide allocation of conservation funding.

An international team led by Dr Brendan Wintle of the University of Melbourne and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions is the first to develop a decision-support model that incorporates both ecological and economic information to guide conservation investment in the face of climate change.

In more than 70 per cent of legal disputes over informed consent, patients allege the doctor failed to properly explain the risks of complications, a University of Melbourne study published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia has found.

Professor David Studdert from the Melbourne School of Population Health and Melbourne Law School and co-authors reviewed nearly 2000 negligence claims against doctors insured by Avant Mutual Group Limited and complaints lodged with the Health Services Commissioner of Victoria between January 2002 and December 2008.

Research by the University of Liverpool has found that intervention policies that promote healthy eating could cut the death rate for cardiovascular disease (CVD) by up to 50%.

Professor Simon Capewell from the Institute of Psychology, Health and Well-being found that intervention policies which reduce unhealthy eating habits can have a significant effect on levels of CVD at both an individual and population level.

Bethesda, Md. (Sept. 19, 2011) – Roughly 5 million people in the United States live with heart failure, a condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood around the body effectively. The causes and types of heart failure vary greatly, and treatment must be tailored to each patient. In some cases, doctors will prescribe a class of diuretic drugs called aldosterone antagonists. However, these diuretics may cause dangerously high levels of potassium in the blood (hyperkalemia) of certain patients, putting them at risk for sudden cardiac death.