Medication shows promise as a treatment for alcohol dependence
Alcohol-dependent patients who received the medication topiramate had fewer heavy drinking days, fewer drinks per day and more days of continuous abstinence than those who received placebo, according to a study in the October 10 issue of JAMA.
According to background information in the article, a previous, shorter trial indicated that topiramate, a medication used in the treatment of seizures, may be beneficial for the treatment of alcohol dependence.
Researchers find evidence linking stress caused by the 9/11 disaster with low birth weight
Researchers have found evidence of an increase in low birth weights among babies born in and around New York City in the weeks and months after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Writing in the journal Human Reproduction [1], they suggest that stress may have contributed to the effect.
Professor Brenda Eskenazi and colleagues studied data from birth certificates of 1,660,401 babies born in New York between January 1996 and December 2002. They divided the babies into those born in New York City (NYC) – whose mothers would, therefore, have been living closest to the disaster zone – and those born in “upstate” New York, which they defined as anyone living outside NYC, including Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties.
