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New study on the placebo effect and antidepressants in children and adolescents

The most common mental disorders in children and adolescents include anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Children and adolescents are often treated with psychotherapy together with newer antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin- norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). Antidepressants work better than placebos but have more side effects Psychologists from the University of Basel analyzed 36 drug trials in cooperation with colleagues from Harvard Medical School and the American National Institute of Mental Health. The trials included data from 6,778 children and adolescents up to the age of 18. The results of the meta-analysis show that, although antidepressants work significantly better than placebos across the range of disorders, the difference is small and varies according to the type of mental disorder. However, the results also showed that the placebo effec...
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20 minute test determines attention and memory capacity in patients with schizophrenia

The research, which forms part of the doctoral thesis of Sílvia Zaragoza Domingo, is the result of a pioneering study lasting 6 months in which 257 professionals worked with a sample of 700 individuals representative of the population diagnosed with schizophrenia in Spain. The study, which goes by the name of EPICOG-SCH , identified a battery of four assessments in order to conduct the test. One of the main novelties of the battery of assessments chosen by researchers and led by Silvia Zaragoza lies in the fact that, in addition to being short, they consist in tests available to doctors and psychologists experts in mental health. Moreover, the tests are available in several languages, which makes it easier to use them with patients of different origins. Another advantage is that they are easy to administer, and therefore facilitates being used by health professionals in order to assess patients with schizophrenia . The test permits health professionals to assess, study and comment...
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Chemotherapy pain could be eased by jetlag drug, study suggests

The drug -- known as melatonin -- appeared to prevent pain caused by chemotherapy damage to nerves. It blocked harmful effects on nerve health, the study with rats shows. Experts say the findings help scientists understand more about ways to limit painful side effects of chemotherapy. Scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen focused on a common condition known as chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain ( CINP ), which causes tingling and pain sensation to touch and cold temperatures that can be severe enough to cause patients to limit their chemotherapy treatment. The study showed that melatonin given prior to chemotherapy limited the damaging effect on nerve cells and the development of pain symptoms. In this study, melatonin did not alleviate pain when CINP had already developed, suggesting that its potential benefits could be as prevention rather than cure. Importantly, melatonin treatment did not interfere with the beneficial anticancer effects of chemot...
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Discovery can pave the way for more effective cholesterol medicine

This discovery makes it possible to develop potentially more efficient and also cheaper PCSK9 inhibiting medicine, which is the new hope for cholesterol treatment. "Statins save many lives every year, but the medicine has the unfortunate consequence that the liver cells begin to produce more PSCK9. We have now uncovered how PCSK9 is captured by specific molecules in the liver called heparan sulfate proteoglycans ( HSPG ), which subsequently lead to the breaking down of the LDL receptor. The consequence is less LDL receptor in the liver, higher LDL cholesterol in the blood and an increased risk of blood clots in the heart. If this process is inhibited, the LDL receptor is protected against degradation, and the amount of cholesterol in the blood falls," says Camilla Gustafsen, who is one of the researchers behind the result and assistant professor at the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University. With the discovery, the researchers have provided one of the pieces t...
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Brain halves increase communication to compensate for aging, study finds

The aged brain tends to show more bilateral communication than the young brain. While this finding has been observed many times, it has not been clear whether this phenomena is helpful or harmful and no study has directly manipulated this effect, until now. "This study provides an explicit test of some controversial ideas about how the brain reorganizes as we age," said lead author Simon Davis, PhD. "These results suggest that the aging brain maintains healthy cognitive function by increasing bilateral communication." Simon Davis and colleagues used a brain stimulation technique known as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to modulate brain activity of healthy older adults while they performed a memory task. When researchers applied TMS at a frequency that depressed activity in one memory region in the left hemisphere, communication increased with the same region in the right hemisphere, suggesting the right hemisphere was compensating to help with the ta...
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Medical students not trained to prescribe medical marijuana

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University and Cleveland State University are the first to explore the link between psychological distress and paid sick leave among U.S. workers ages 18-64. Results of their study, published in the  American Journal of Orthopsychiatry , illuminate the effects of exacerbated stress on Americans without paid sick leave who are unable to care for themselves or their loved ones without fear of losing wages or their jobs. The researchers found that workers without paid sick leave benefits reported a statistically significant higher level of psychological distress. They also are 1.45 times more likely to report that their distress symptoms interfere "a lot" with their daily life and activities compared to workers with paid sick leave. Those most vulnerable: young, Hispanic, low-income and poorly educated populations. "Given the disproportionate access to paid sick leave based on race, ethnicity and income status, coupled with its relati...
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Time to dial back on diabetes treatment in older patients? Study finds 11 percent are overtreated

But what if stopping, or at least cutting back on, such drugs could help even more in some patients? In some older people, such "deintensification" of diabetes treatment may be the safer route, because of the risks of falls and other issues that come with too-low blood sugar. But a new study in the  Journal of General Internal Medicine suggests more doctors and such patients should work together to dial back diabetes treatment. Who's over-treated? Almost 11 percent of Medicare participants with diabetes had very low blood sugar levels that suggested they were being over-treated, the new study finds. But only 14 percent of these patients had a reduction in blood sugar medication refills in the next six months. Patients over age 75, and those who qualified for both Medicare and Medicaid because of low incomes or serious disability, were most likely to be over-treated. Those who lived in urban areas or were of Hispanic origin were less likely to be over-treated....
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