Culture

Sudden cardiac death is always a shocking, tragic event, especially when it occurs at a young age. But, for the first time, scientists are unraveling how genetic defects can help predict the risk of dying suddenly in individuals with one of the leading causes of this unfortunate phenomenon.

People who are depressed are less likely to adhere to medications for their chronic health problems than patients who are not depressed, putting them at increased risk of poor health, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Researchers found that depressed patients across a wide array of chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease had 76 percent greater odds of being non-adherent with their medications compared to patients who were not depressed. The findings were published online by the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

While the disturbing act of self-injury is nothing new to adolescents, researchers and physicians at Nationwide Children's Hospital have identified a more severe type of behavior that is raising some concern among medical professionals. Often misdiagnosed, ignored and under-reported, Self-Embedding Behavior (SEB) is a form of self-injurious behavior that involves inserting foreign objects into soft tissue – either under the skin or into muscle.

A new study published in the journal Respirology reveals that adult patients admitted to the hospital with pneumonia are more likely to die if they have Vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D is known to be involved in the innate immune response to infection.

The team of researchers at Waikato Hospital and the Universities of Waikato and Otago, measured vitamin D in the blood samples of 112 adult patients admitted with community acquired pneumonia during the winter at the only acute-care hospital in Hamilton, New Zealand.

The first study into the prevalence of overall cardiovascular risk in the Spanish working population (ICARIA) shows that 6% of workers have a high risk (8% on men and 2% in women). This prevalence increases with age in both sexes, and is highest in the farming sector, followed by construction, industry and services.

Montreal, May 10, 2010 – As people face a terminal illness and are confined to a hospital bed or hospice room, music can provide a great source of solace. North American healthcare professionals have increasingly recognized the benefits of music therapy in palliative care, since end-of-life treatment is designed to meet the psychosocial, physical and spiritual needs of patients.

ROCHESTER, Minn. - Constipation is definitely not a glamorous topic. In reality, it affects nearly 30 million Americans and costs more than $1 billion annually to evaluate and treat. While not often life threatening, the pain, bloating, discomfort, and straining associated with constipation lead sufferers to focus on one thing - relief. Mayo Clinic researchers recently had success in the clinical trial of a new medication shown to provide relief from constipation in a way that capitalizes on the body's natural processes.

The results of a unique study from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, show that personality has an impact on how likely people are to take their medication. This is the first major study of its kind to be published in the online journal PloS ONE.

Greater powers introduced by the government to enable specially trained nurses and pharmacists to prescribe medication in England have been successfully adopted, according to a new report.

Health service researchers from the universities of Southampton and Keele found widespread acceptance of the new powers among patients and that prescribing practices were safe and appropriate for the type of medical conditions being treated.

Seals and the fishing industry compete for fish of all types – no matter whether it is salmon, whitefish, herring or cod. Seal-safe fishing gear is the most sustainable solution, and we need knowledge about the behaviour of fish and seals in order to develop such gear. This is the conclusion reached by scientists at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Palo Alto, CA— Accurately calculating the amount of carbon dioxide emitted in the process of producing and bringing products to our doorsteps is nearly impossible, but still a worthwhile effort, two Carnegie researchers claim in a commentary published online this week by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Even short-term use of some painkillers could be dangerous for people who've had a heart attack, according to research published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

(Boston) - Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA), meant to improve detection of life-threatening pulmonary embolisms (PE), has led to over-diagnosis and over treatment of this condition. These findings, which appear in May 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. may continue to grow worse as the as the use of CT scans continue to rise.

BOSTON – More than a third of Americans use some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and that number continues to rise attributed mostly to increases in the use of mind-body therapies (MBT) like yoga, meditation and deep breathing exercises.

Prior research suggests that MBT, while used by millions of patients, is still on the fringe of mainstream medical care in America. New research suggests that attitudes are changing.

The available evidence is insufficient to draw firm conclusions about the association of modifiable factors and risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to a report posted online today that will appear in the September issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.