Health News

Developing non-specialist mental health services in Nigeria

Date: Aug-22-2013
Mental health conditions contribute to approximately 14% of the total global burden of disease but there is a substantial treatment gap in both developed and developing countries. Treatment of mental health conditions in low resource settings such as Nigeria, one of Africa's most populous countries, is particularly challenging where that are few mental health professionals. For example Nigeria has a population of ~150 million but only 0.06 psychiatrists and 0.02 psychologists per 100,000 people...

Next-generation cochlear implants on the horizon

Date: Aug-22-2013
A healthy ear is much better at detecting and transmitting sound than even the most advanced hearing aid. But now researchers reporting in the Biophysical Journal, a Cell Press publication, have uncovered new insights into how the ear -- in particular, the cochlea -- processes and amplifies sound. The findings could be used for the development of better devices to improve hearing. Sound-sensing cells within the cochlea -- called hair cells due to the presence of cilia on their membrane surfaces -- vibrate strongly at different sound frequencies depending on their location...

The challenges of studying Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus transmission by a variety of tick species

Date: Aug-22-2013
When University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers set out to study Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, they faced a daunting challenge. The deadly virus requires biosafety level 4 containment, and it's carried by ticks. That meant that if scientists wanted to study the transmission of the virus, they had to do something that had never been done before: find a way to work safely with the tiny, tough bugs in a maximum containment "spacesuit lab...

2 studies suggest tjat HB-EGF protects intestines from a variety of injuries

Date: Aug-22-2013
It's not often that one treatment offers therapeutic potential for multiple conditions. However, after more than two decades of research, Gail Besner, MD, principal investigator for the Center for Perinatal Research and pediatric surgeon for the Department of Pediatric Surgery at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and her team have found that this may just be the case with HB-EGF, or heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor. Having discovered the growth factor in 1990, Dr...

The mental health of children improved by 'The How-to Parenting Program'

Date: Aug-22-2013
While children of all ages will be heading back to school in a few days, a new study from the Universite de Montreal may encourage their parents to return to the classroom themselves ... at least for a few evenings! The results of a study in developmental psychology published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies show that the How-to Parenting Program improves the mental health of children. "Did you know that certain ways of talking to your child are more effective? Certain ways of listening make a real difference?" These questions are asked to parents in the How-to Parenting Program...

Bacterial infection during pregnancy the likely cause of infection during newborn's first week of life

Date: Aug-22-2013
Infection during a newborn's first 7 days of life is associated with bacterial infection or colonization in the mother Early-onset neonatal infection, defined as infection in the first 7 days of life, is associated with maternal infection and colonization, a systematic review and meta-analysis by Grace Chan (Johns Hopkins School of Public Health) and colleagues found in this week's issue of PLOS Medicine. Newborns of mothers with laboratory-confirmed infection had an odds ratio of 6.6 (95%CI 3.9-11...

Kainate receptors and sodium in the brain

Date: Aug-22-2013
Researchers at McGill University have found that sodium - the main chemical component in table salt - is a unique "on/off" switch for a major neurotransmitter receptor in the brain. This receptor, known as the kainate receptor, is fundamental for normal brain function and is implicated in numerous diseases, such as epilepsy and neuropathic pain. Prof. Derek Bowie and his laboratory in McGill's Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, worked with University of Oxford researchers to make the discovery...

Dopamine implicated in food restriction, drug abuse

Date: Aug-22-2013
Scientists have reported a possible basis for why food-restricted animals show increased susceptibility to drugs of abuse. This association has puzzled researchers since it was first observed more than three decades ago. Senior author Michael Beckstead, Ph.D., from the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, said the team found that dopamine neurons in a brain region called the substantia nigra fire bursts more than twice as frequently in chronically food-restricted mice...

Low complication rates for combined liposuction/tummy tuck

Date: Aug-22-2013
A combined technique of liposuction and tummy tuck - designed to reduce surgical trauma - provides excellent patient outcomes with a low complication rate, reports a study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery-Global Open®, the official open-access medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). ASPS Member Surgeon Dr. Eric Swanson, a plastic surgeon in private practice in Leawood, Kan., presents an in-depth report on his experience with a combined technique of liposuction and abdominoplasty in a large series of patients over five years...

Problems with appetite hormone found in people with both diabetes and obesity

Date: Aug-22-2013
Glucagon, a hormone involved in regulating appetite, loses its ability to help obese people feel full after a meal, but it continues to suppress hunger pangs in people with type 1 diabetes, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). The primary role of glucagon, a hormone secreted by the pancreas, is to signal the body to release stored glucose when blood sugar falls too low...