Rise in stranger homicides not linked to mental illness
...ill people and the "care in the community" policy, finds a study in this week's BMJ. Instead, stranger homicides are more likely to be related to alcohol or drug misuse. Researchers identified people convicted of homicide in England and Wales between 1996 and 1999 and recorded whether the victim was known ...Odorants enhance survival of olfactory neurons
A new study finds that the olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) exhibit ...arch, published in the March 25 issue of Neuron , finds that a molecular signaling pathway linked to neuronal survival in the central nervous system plays a...Teen-rated video games loaded with violence
A new study finds that Teen-rated video games contain significant amounts of violence and death. Led by researchers at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston and the Kids Risk Project at the Harvard School of Public Health, the study appear...Success of nicotine patches linked to genetic make-up
...netic make-up (genotype) in women, but not in men, finds new research. It has been suggested that variants of the dopamine D2 receptor may be related to response to nicotine replacement therapy. This study will be available on bmj.com on Friday 19 March 2004. Researchers examined abstinence from smoking am...Video games, not TV, linked to obesity in kids
...children snack while watching. Vandewater says she finds the persistence of the view that watching television makes kids fat puzzling, given much research to the contrary. The connection between obesity and the television screen is weak, she says. In her study, children with higher BMIs seemed to play vide...High association between welfare, poor health: Study
...odds of reporting poor physical and mental health, finds a University of Toronto study. Statistical analysis of data from the 1996-97 National Population Health Survey revealed that welfare recipients were more likely to report poor or fair health, depression and distress than people not on welfare as well...Current policy for complex surgery is misguided
...s that do a large volume of any complex procedure, finds new research. These findings challenge the policy that patients who need a high-risk procedure travel to hospitals that do a high volume of that procedure (known as regionalisation). This study will be available on bmj.com on Friday 12 March 2004. R...Study clarifies impact of diet on the risk of gout
... New England Journal of Medicine , the study also finds that intake of dairy products, particularly low-fat, may be protective against gout. "The association of purine-rich foods with gout had long been suspected but never proven," says Hyon Choi, MD, DrPH, of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Rhe...Why don't heart patients take their medicine? Study finds forgetfulness at the top of the list
...fic Session of the American College of Cardiology, finds forgetfulness, carelessness and side effects all play a role. Even among patients whose doctors are taking part in a program aimed at optimizing the quality of heart care as these U-M patients were about half reported some problems sticking to the...News tips from the American Heart Association
...Association and American Stroke Association survey finds awareness and knowledge about stroke to be "sub-optimal" among women, especially in ethnic minorities, who are at highest risk. In a telephone survey, 1,024 women over age 25, (68 percent white, 12 percent black, 12 percent Hispanic), were questione...Racial, economic gaps in kids' eye care seen in four new studies
...tet of new studies focusing on children's eye care finds that race, income, location, gender and insurance status can make a big difference in the likelihood that children with vision problems will see an eye specialist or get lenses to correct their vision. Minority children, and those whose parents don't...March 2, 2004, Annals of Internal Medicine tip sheet
... in households of healthy individuals, a new study finds (Article, p. 321). Researchers studied 224 urban households in which one group was given household cleaning and personal hygiene products that contained antibacterial ingredients and the second was given identical-looking products that did not have a...Coeliac disease may predict schizophrenia
...ce) is a risk factor for developing schizophrenia, finds a study in this week's BMJ. Previous studies have suggested an association between these two disorders. Researchers identified 7,997 people older than 15 who were admitted to any Danish psychiatric unit for the first time between 1981 and 1998 with a...Rectal cancer treatment gaps, especially for African Americans, seen in new study
...Americans is slower than for whites. The new study finds that African-Americans with rectal cancer were diagnosed at a younger age than whites, and were more likely to have reached an advanced stage of cancer progression before their cancer was caught. They were also more likely than whites to have a kind ...Retention scheme could offset GP recruitment crisis
...current recruitment crisis in UK general practice, finds a study in this week's BMJ . Researchers surveyed 348 practising general practitioners aged 55 and older about their retirement plans, their reasons if retirement was planned before the age of 60, and their interest in a retention scheme. Of 333 who...Distance to hospital affects heart attack survival
... a new Cornell University study. The research also finds that for each five-minute increase in distance from a hospital, a person's probability of getting to the hospital in time falls by 1.25 percent. "With prompt medical attention, a person's blockage to the heart, which causes a heart attack, can often...Jan/Feb 2004 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
...ects. However, a study by Oeffinger and colleagues finds that survivors reported a decrease in contact with the medical system just when the incidence of many late effects are increasing. In a study of 9,434 adult childhood cancer survivors, the researchers found that while almost 90 percent of the su...Computer resources help doctors answer patient care questions
...opics such as SARS, anthrax or influenza. She also finds more and more information that is available only online, such as traveler health information issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Previously, the CDC's travel 'yellow' book used to be printed once a year and quickly got ...Brain receptor switches addiction on, off
...n. 18 in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience finds that a region of the brain called the VTA contains receptors that, when exposed to a certain enzyme, can control the switch from an addicted to non-addicted state and back again. This goes against previous ideas that viewed drug addiction as a perman......coming outbreak about to hit nearby villages. Such finds could therefore aid in attempts at more effective prevention of Ebola virus transmission to humans. The Ebola virus, identified for the first time in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (ex-Zaire), has unleashed several lethal epidemics in Cent...