PTSD common in chronic migraine sufferers
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is more common in people who suffer from chronic migraine headache than in those with episodic migraine headache, research suggests.
“Recent data suggest that PTSD may be more common in headache sufferers than in the general population,” Dr. B. Lee Peterlin, of Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and colleagues note in the journal Headache.
They assessed the relative frequency of PTSD in 32 patients with episodic migraine and 28 with chronic migraine. People with chronic migraine typically have headaches on 15 or more days a month, while people with episodic migraine have fewer than 15 days of headache per month.
Weight-loss drugs may harm developing brain: study
A drug from a new class of weight-loss treatments disrupted wiring needed for brain development in young mice, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday, raising concerns about using such medications in children.
Mark Bear and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studied the effects of a chemical that suppresses appetite by blocking cannabinoid receptors in the brain, the same brain mechanisms that make people hungry when they smoke marijuana.
“I think that the cautionary note is that these mechanisms play an important role in ... brain development,” said Bear, whose study appears in the journal Neuron.
Five percent of breast tumors may double in month
Five percent of breast cancer tumors appear to double in size in just over a month, Norwegian researchers said on Thursday in a study underscoring the potential benefits of more frequent screening.
The study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research also suggested detection rates of just 26 percent for a 5 mm tumor, and 91 percent for a 10 mm tumor.
The researchers used a computer model fed with national screening and cancer data to calculate how quickly tumors grow and estimate the proportion of breast cancers detected at screening.
Cane Use May Reduce Risk of Knee Osteoarthritis Progression
A common, incurable joint disease, osteoarthritis (OA) is the leading cause of disability in elderly people. While nearly any joint can be affected, OA most often strikes the knee, particularly the inner aspect of the tibiofemoral joint. One source of stress on this vulnerable joint compartment is the knee adduction moment, an indication of weight placement while walking. A 20 percent increase in the peak knee adduction moment is associated with a 6-fold or greater increase in the risk of knee OA progression over 6 years. To reduce knee load, pain and damage in knee OA patients, physicians often prescribe two inexpensive interventions: footwear and cane use. While these simple strategies have the potential to alter the knee adduction moment, there is little research attesting to their specific benefits for knee OA sufferers.
To assess the immediate effects of walking shoes and a walking cane on the peak knee adduction moment in people with knee OA, researchers at the University of Melbourne turned to 3-dimensional (3-D) gait analysis. Their findings, featured in the May 2008 issue of Arthritis Care & Research (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/arthritis), strongly support using a cane on a regular basis to reduce the load borne across the knee, while underscoring the urgent need for studies into which aspects of shoe design best support the treatment of knee OA patients.
Major shift in HIV prevention priorities needed
According to a new policy analysis led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of California, Berkeley, the most common HIV prevention strategies—condom promotion, HIV testing, treatment of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), vaccine and microbicide research, and abstinence—are having a limited impact on the predominantly heterosexual epidemics found in Africa. Furthermore, some of the assumptions underlying such strategies—such as poverty or war being major causes of AIDS in Africa—are unsupported by rigorous scientific evidence. The researchers argue that two interventions currently getting less attention and resources—male circumcision and reducing multiple sexual partnerships—would have a greater impact on the AIDS pandemic and should become the cornerstone of HIV prevention efforts in the high-HIV-prevalence parts of Africa.
The paper appears in the May 9, 2008 issue of the journal Science.
“Despite relatively large investments in AIDS prevention efforts for some years now, including sizeable spending in some of the most heavily affected countries (such as South Africa and Botswana), it’s clear that we need to do a better job of reducing the rate of new HIV infections. We need a fairly dramatic shift in priorities, not just a minor tweaking,” said Daniel Halperin, lecturer on international health in the HSPH Department of Population and International Health and one of the paper’s lead authors.
Study Suggests Diet High in Saturated Fat Contributes to Prostate Cancer Treatment Failure
In the online version of the International Journal of Cancer, Dr. Sara Strom and associates evaluate the association between saturated fat intake and biochemical failure among men who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP).
A cohort of 390 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy at MD Anderson Cancer Center had a semi-quantitative validated Block food frequency questionnaire modified to their regional diets and completed for the year prior to the diagnosis of prostate cancer. Body mass index (BMI) was also calculated. Clinical and pathological data were abstracted from medical records. Categorical and continual variables were analyzed.
Childhood Pain Trauma Unlikely Link to Adult Chronic Pain
Though some adults with chronic pain often say they experienced an adverse event in childhood (such as abuse), these events are no more common than amongst adults who are pain free, according to research presented today at the American Pain Society annual meeting.
In his plenary session address, Gary Macfarlane, MD, professor of epidemiology at University of Aberdeen (Scotland) School of Medicine, said that some pain patients hold perceptions that their pain stems from an adverse event in childhood and they more commonly remember such events.
Arthritis is a potential barrier to physical activity for adults with diabetes
People with diagnosed diabetes are nearly twice as likely to have arthritis, and the inactivity caused by arthritis hinders the successful management of both diseases, according to a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) study released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is one of the first studies of its kind to look at the relationship between arthritis and diabetes and the outcomes associated with physical activity.
The report finds that arthritis appears to be a barrier to being physically active for people with diabetes. Despite the fact that physical activity helps control blood glucose levels and reduces joint pain, people with both diseases are more likely to be physically inactive (29.8%) compared to those with diabetes alone (20.1%).
“Arthritis is a frequent co morbid condition for adults with diabetes,” said John H. Klippel, M.D., president and CEO, Arthritis Foundation. “But for both diseases, physical activity is key to effective management. A lack of physical activity actually results in undesirable consequences including increased pain, stiffness, inflammation, physical limitation and potential disability.”
