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'Guns do not make a country safer,' study suggests
Date: Sep-18-2013Gun ownership has long been the cause of controversial debate, particularly in the US. Now, a new study has suggested that countries with higher levels of gun ownership are not safer than those with lower levels. Researchers from St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the New York University Langone Medical Center analyzed data from 27 developed countries, looking at possible associations between gun ownership rates, mental illness, and the risk of firearm-related death...
Did sex evolve to satisfy 'selfish' genes?
Date: Sep-18-2013A new study from New Zealand, which is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, lends support to the idea that "selfish" genes may have encouraged individuals to mate so they could infect other genomes. Birds do it and bees do it, but why does so much of nature engage in sexual reproduction? Some might say because it is pleasurable, but from an evolutionary view, this aspect did not emerge until long after the process of mixing genes among individuals to produce new offspring arose...
Probiotic drink significantly reduces incidence of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in spinal injury patients
Date: Sep-18-2013Researchers at the National Spinal Injuries Centre (NSIC) in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, a research partner of the Centre of Gastroenterology and Clinical Nutrition at University College London, have found that a daily commercial probiotic drink (containing Lactobacillus casei Shirota: Yakult Light) significantly reduces incidence of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in spinal injury patients. The study, published in the peer-reviewed British Journal of Nutrition, was funded by the Healthcare Infection Society and by Yakult UK Limited, who also provided the Yakult Light drinks...
Finding comfort in coffee cups: social breaks help workers cope with workplace stress
Date: Sep-18-2013Coffee breaks are an important part of workplace culture as they provide a crucial coping mechanism for stressful work, according to new research from Symbolic Interaction. A group of public workers in Denmark were studied after a large-scale merger. The study found that the stress from their jobs and the merger was relieved by forming "communities of coping" during coffee breaks with coworkers. These communities allowed for social interaction with fellow employees, allowing them to share both professional opinions and personal frustrations with their work...
Autoinjectors for injectable drugs positioned to overtake pen injectors by 2018
Date: Sep-18-2013As the number of injectable drugs designed to be self-administered has grown in recent years, specialty injection devices - specifically autoinjectors and pen injectors - have experienced healthy unit growth. These devices are gaining market penetration by improving patient compliance and safety, and by providing drug marketers with a path to differentiate their drug products in the age of Direct-to-Consumer marketing. Autoinjectors owe their existence to the emergence of the prefilled syringe as a major drug delivery platform...
New policy paper from the American College of Physicians sets framework for organizing clinical care teams based on patient needs
Date: Sep-18-2013A new policy paper from the American College of Physicians (ACP) sets the framework for a team-based model of health care. Principles Supporting Dynamic Clinical Care Teams outlines more than a dozen principles for creating more nimble, adaptable partnerships that encourage teamwork, collaboration, and smooth transitions of responsibility to ensure the best possible care for patients...
Unusual combination therapy shows promise for preventing prostate cancer, UPCI researchers find
Date: Sep-18-2013Combining a compound from broccoli with an antimalarial drug prevents prostate cancer in mice, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) researchers discovered. The National Cancer Institute-funded research will be published in the Oct. 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research. It is the first such study to show the effectiveness of the combined treatment and provides compelling evidence for human clinical trials...
Gene therapy study produces promising results for patients with hemophilia B
Date: Sep-18-2013A fraction of patients with a common form of the bleeding disorder hemophilia develop an allergic reaction to the blood-clotting treatment they need to keep them alive. But using gene therapy, University of Florida researchers were able to reverse this reaction and provide long-lasting treatment for the disease in an animal model, according to findings published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine...
Compassion isn't the key to NHS failings according to UEA report
Date: Sep-18-2013Compassion is not the answer to systemic failings within the NHS, according to a medical ethics expert from the University of East Anglia. David Cameron has called for nurses to be hired and promoted on the basis of having compassion in response to the Francis Report into failings at mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. But Dr Anna Smajdor from UEA's Norwich Medical School argues that the move could be "dangerous" in a paper published in the journal Clinical Ethics...
Anxiety is a greater risk factor for suicide than depression, studies report
Date: Sep-18-2013The relationship between anxiety and suicide risk has long been debated, but now four papers in a special issue of Depression and Anxiety aim to settle the controversy by demonstrating that anxiety posed a greater suicide risk than depression. In the first study, Dr. Phillip Batterham examined 7,485 adults and found that suicidal thoughts were more strongly predicted by incident symptoms of anxiety than depression. Holly Wilcox follows this by examining the role of PTSD in 1,433 adults with severe depression and a high lifetime rate of attempted suicide. PTSD increased suicide risk by 2...
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