Sexual lifestyles vary among ethnic groups in Britain
...omen reported an average of five lifetime partners compared with four reported by black Caribbean women, three...sexual risk behaviour and higher incidence of STIs compared to white, Indian and Pakistani men. The study found that the main factor influencing an individual'...Chronic pain treatments more effective when taken together, new study shows
... effects and the side effects." The clinical trial compared a combination of morphine and gabapentin to each drug alone, as well as to a placebo, in a group of patients with either diabetic neuropathy or postherpetic neuralgia. All the patients received all four treatments. The results showed that pain inten...UCSF study offers insight into human circadian rhythms
... was found on chromosome 17. (The mutated form was compared to the gene in family members who did not have FASPS.) Next, they determined that, in a test tube, the activity of the enzyme (CK1 delta) encoded by the mutated gene was decreased. Finally, to explore the effect of the genetic mutation on circadian a...International breast cancer prevention study launches in the United States and Canada
...o exemestane after two to three years of tamoxifen compared to those who continued on tamoxifen for a total of five years, the current standard of care. Additionally, twice as many women receiving tamoxifen developed second (or new) breast cancers than those treated with exemestane. Unlike other aromatase...Geodon effective in psychiatric emergencies; Sharply reduces time in restraints
...n IM were held in restraints dropped by 40 percent compared to the period prior to this study when similar agitated patients received conventional antipsychotics--primarily haloperidol, known by the brand name Haldol. For more than 50 years, Haldol IM has been considered the gold standard of injectable antip...Patients newly diagnosed with HIV are more likely to enter outpatient care with case management
... least twice within 12 months following diagnosis, compared to only 60 percent of patients in the standard-of-... an HIV clinician at least twice within 12 months, compared to 49 percent of the standard-of-care group. The researchers estimated the cost for the case manag...March/April 2005 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
...d 26 percent greater odds of mammography screening compared to patients at control clinics. Although still apparent, intervention effects on screening at 24 months had clearly diminished relative to effects observed at 12 months. Long-term Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial to Increase Cancer Screen...Unexpected benefit seen in treating HER-2 breast cancer with new preoperative drug combo
...eceived Herceptin and chemotherapy before surgery, compared to patients treated with chemotherapy alone. In th...y, was 66.7 percent in Herceptin-treated patients, compared to 25 percent in patients who received only chemotherapy. Of all 42 patients who had enrolled in the...Cultural and social factors influence prostate cancer treatment
...ir unmarried counterparts to receive prostatectomy compared with radiation. The authors summarize, "This study confirmed the hypothesis that sociocultural factors add significant explanatory power to traditional biomedical variables in understanding treatment patterns of early-stage prostate cancer."......ions in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) compared with controls. Since then, measurement of serum uric acid has been suggested as a predictor of CHD. But many of the studies on serum uric acid are epidemiologic studies and have come to different conclusions about how useful measurement of uric acid ...Professionalism and professional ethics in medicine
...1 percent) or both (38.1 percent). The researchers compared six different communication styles to determine how physicians might best communicate financial disclosure information increasing trust and supporting the physician-patient relationship. "Of the six different disclosure strategies, 'addressing emotio...Raw food vegetarians have low bone mass
... diet for an average of 3.6 years. The researchers compared them to people who ate a more typical American diet, including refined carbohydrates, animal products and cooked food. The groups were matched according to age, sex and socioeconomic status. In both groups, Fontana's team measured body mass index, bo......t at a higher risk for hepatotoxicity from statins compared with hyperlipidemic patients with normal transaminases. The relationship between statins and cancer raises another important question. Statins have been shown to cause various tumors in rodents, though short-term studies have revealed no carcinoge...Hepatitis C and health-related quality of life
...lished between January 1990 and June 2004. Fifteen compared HRQOL in HCV patients with that of healthy patients. They showed that HCV patients had a diminished HRQOL, most dramatically in social and physical function, general health, and vitality. Nine studies stratified HRQOL by response to treatment measure...Vaccine against childhood pneumonia shows promise
...d an episode of pneumonia confirmed by chest x-ray compared with 513 of 8151 in the control group. The vaccine reduced the first episode of pneumonia diagnosed by chest x-ray by 37% and reduced admissions to hospital by 15%. Disease caused by the types of pneumococcus bacteria in the vaccine was lowered by ...Cardiac deaths peak in sleep hours for patients with sleep apnea
...wice as many people die of cardiac causes then, as compared to the midnight to 6 a.m. period. But for patients with obstructive sleep apnea, the peaks were reversed; more than twice as many cardiac deaths came during the sleeping hours." Apoor Gami, M.D., lead author of the study, examined the death certifica...Mental health service costs offset by savings in other public sectors
...stem of care have been criticized as too expensive compared to communities that don't adopt the approach. How...ne of these communities in Stark County, Ohio, and compared it with a non-system-of-care community in Mahoning County, Ohio. The researchers found that expendi...Stanford patient is first to test new treatment for peripheral arterial disease
... likely to prevent the blockage from recurring, as compared with uncoated stents, which fail to do so in about one-quarter of the cases. "We already know the benefits of drug-coated stents for the treatment of coronary artery disease," said Michael Dake, MD, a former Stanford faculty member who recently becam...Chronic fatigue patients show lower response to placebos
...rome improved after receiving inactive treatments, compared with a widely accepted figure of about 30 percent for other conditions. Because the placebo effect seems to be strongest in diseases with highly subjective symptoms, some medical professionals believed it could be as high as 50 percent among CFS pat...UW research shows risk factors for relapse among health care professionals who abuse drugs
...in-killers, were more likely to die from drug use, compared to internal medicine physicians. "State physician health programs may want to consider ways of treating substance abuse among professionals who have one or more of these three risk factors and a history of prior relapse," Domino noted. "This study d...