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Talk
isn't cheap, but it is good value
BRISTOL,UK
— When it
comes to government-funded healthcare, everyone from
taxpayers to cabinet ministers wants the most bang for
their buck. According to a study in the March 19 issue
of the BMJ, money spent by the UK on drugs to
treat depression might have been better allocated. Prescriptions
for antidepressants have gone up three-fold between
1991 and 2002, a £310m ($709.49m Cdn) increase.
According to the researchers' calculations, for the
extra dough the feds forked out for these meds, over
a third of adults with depression could have received
the proven benefits of cognitive behavioural therapy
instead.
Docs to mums:
get a jab
MIAMI —
A study of 200 women with kids between eight and 14
found that the majority would be all for getting an
HPV vaccine for both themselves and their kids. The
findings, presented March 20 at the Society of Gynecologic
Oncologists 36th Annual Meeting, showed that 76% of
mums would say yes to the vaccine; 67% would get their
daughters in on the act; and 64% of mums with sons would
have the boy vaccinated as well. Mums who'd choose not
to have their kids vaccinated cited unknown side effects
and the fact that their kids weren't sexually active.
Medicine
goes retro with maggot therapy
YORK —
The world's largest maggot trial is gearing up to begin
in the UK. Six hundred patients are currently being
recruited to take part in the three-year study that
will look at how effective the larvae are at treating
infected wounds. Participants will be divided into three
groups; the first will receive loose maggots held in
place with a dressing; the second will get maggots contained
in a gauze bag; and the final group will receive the
standard treatment of hydrogel.
Extreme diets:
a raw deal for bones
ST LOUIS
— According
to new research, people who eat only raw fruit and veggies
might be putting themselves at risk of developing osteoporosis.
A small study published in the March 28 Archives
of Internal Medicine has found that folks who choose
to eat raw food have an increased risk of getting the
bone wasting disease. Researchers looked at 18 raw foodists
at an average age of 54. They found those who shunned
pots and pans had lower bone mineral densities than
those who followed a standard cooked diet. A lack of
calcium-rich dairy products was unsurprisingly a contributing
factor.
The SARS in
the sky
TORONTO
and HONG KONG — Two
studies conducted during the 2003 SARS outbreak —
one out of the University of Toronto, the other from
the Chinese University of Hong Kong — suggest that
airborne transmission of the virus is indeed possible.
Both studies are available online and will be published
in the May 1 editions of the Journal of Infectious
Diseases (the Toronto study) and Clinical Infectious
Diseases (the Hong Kong study). The Toronto researchers
took air samples and surface swabs in SARS contaminated
areas and confirmed the presence of the corona virus
in the air. The Hong Kong team found that risk of infection
increased with proximity, a finding that also suggests
airborne transmission.
Expert
owns up to his crime
WASHINGTON
— US physiologist
and ex-University of Montreal researcher Eric Poelhman
faces possible jail time for research misconduct. He
has admitted to lying on 17 grant applications —
all to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) —
and fabricating data in 10 published articles. The disgraced
doc has authored more than 200 papers on topics ranging
from obesity to menopause and aging. The NIH has barred
him for life from receiving American grants. For
more on conflict of interest in the NIH see "The
secret of NIH: Money muddled research" .
Barcode babies
LONDON
— Britain's
Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority is looking
into adding barcodes to sperm and egg samples for couples
trying for a test tube baby, in an attempt to avoid
mix-ups. This comes after a highly publicized 2002 case
in which a couple ended up with twins of mixed-race
after a labelling mistake in a local fertility clinic.
Barcoding is already used in blood banks and according
to Dr Steve Troup of Liverpool Women's Hospital it can,
in principle, be applied to in vitro fertilization.
Vitamin
E redeemed?
TEHRAN
— After
all the recent guff about vitamin E, the maligned supplement's
getting some good press. A study of 278 girls with primary
dysmenorrhea aged 15-17 found that those who were given
200 units of the vitamin twice daily for two days before
their periods and during the first three days of bleeding
had less severe pain than those on placebo. Not only
did vitamin E help relieve primary dysmenorrhea, it
also reduced blood loss. The research appears in the
April edition of BJOG: An International Journal of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology (formerly the British
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology).
White blood
cells bring black tidings
MINNEAPOLIS
— The key
to determining the cardiovascular disease risk of postmenopausal
women may be in their blood, according to a report in
the March 14 Archives of Internal Medicine. A
study of 72,242 women found that those whose white blood
cell (WBC) counts were in the highest quartile were
more than twice as likely as those in the lowest quartile
to die of cardiovascular disease. Over the average 6.1
years of followup, these high WBC counts were also associated
with a 40% higher risk of nonfatal myocardial infarction,
and a 46% increased risk of stroke.
Fractures
fall through the cracks
LYONS —
"Step on a crack, break your mother's back; step on
a line, break your mother's spine." This old children's
rhyme is current again after the revelation that the
international incidence of vertebrate fractures is higher
than previously thought, especially in women. According
to research in the April issue of the Journal of
Bone and Mineral Research underdiagnosis of this
condition is surprisingly common. Researchers examined
the thoracolumbar spine radiographs of 2,451 women aged
65-80 with osteoporosis and the results proved that
underdiagnosis of vertebrate fractures occurred in all
geographic regions. The North American false negative
rate was 45% — much higher than the international
rate of 34%.
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