College Drinking May Aggravate PTSD Symptoms

College students with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are likely to drink more alcohol than other students, potentially worsening their symptoms and leading them to drink even more, new research suggests.
It's estimated that 9 percent of all college students suffer from PTSD, an anxiety disorder that can develop after seeing or living through a frightening event. People with PTSD may experience flashbacks, nightmares and angry outbursts.
"College is a time of important developmental changes and a period of risk for heavy drinking, trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress symptoms," study principal investigator Jennifer Read, an associate professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo, said in a university news release.
"Heavy drinking is common on college campuses and related to risk for sexual assault, interpersonal violence and serious injury, any of which may trigger PTSD," Read added.
For the study, published recently in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, the researchers tracked almost 500 students through three years of college.
"We show that alcohol use and associated problems are linked over time to an exacerbation in PTSD symptoms, and that PTSD symptoms show a similar effect on alcohol consumption," Read said.
"Each affects the other. As such, both PTSD and heavy drinking are risk factors for one another, each with implications for the other over the course of college," Read added.

Sources http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=176492

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Trick identified that aids viral infection

Date:

January 30, 2014

Source:

Washington University in St. Louis

Summary:

Scientists have identified a way some viruses protect themselves from the immune system’s efforts to stop infections, a finding that may make new approaches to treating viral infections possible.

 

 

 

 

Scientists have discovered a defense system — built into some viruses — that may be vulnerable to treatment. The researchers studied alphaviruses similar to the Eastern equine encephalitis virus, pictured above in red. This virus is transmitted to humans and horses by mosquito bites.

Credit: Fred Murphy, Sylvia Whitfield/CDC

[Click to enlarge image]

Scientists have identified a way some viruses protect themselves from the immune system's efforts to stop infections, a finding that may make new approaches to treating viral infections possible.

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Viruses have well-known strategies for slipping past the immune system. These include faking or stealing a molecular identification badge that prevents a cell from recognizing a virus.
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere have found some viruses have another trick. They can block the immune system protein that checks for the identification badge.
The blocking structure is called a stem-loop, found at the beginning of the virus's genetic material. This is the first time scientists have found an immune-fighting mechanism built directly into the genetic material of a virus. They are looking for ways to disable it and searching for similar mechanisms that may be built into the genetic material of other disease-causing microorganisms.
"When the stem-loop is in place and stable, it blocks a host cell immune protein that otherwise would bind to the virus and stop the infectious process," said senior author Michael Diamond, MD, PhD, professor of medicine. "We found that changing a single letter of the virus's genetic code can disable the stem-loop's protective effects and allow the virus to be recognized by the host immune protein. We hope to find ways to weaken the stem-loop structure with drugs or other treatments, restoring the natural virus-fighting capabilities of the cell and stopping or slowing some viral infections."
Most life forms encode their genes in DNA. To use the instructions contained in DNA, though, cells have to translate them into a related genetic material, RNA, that can be read by a cell's protein-making machinery.
Some viruses encode their genes directly in RNA. Examples include West Nile virus and influenza virus, and the viruses that cause sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), yellow fever and polio.
When a virus infects a cell, it co-opts the cell's protein-making machinery to make viral proteins. These proteins allow the virus to replicate. Copies of the virus break into other cells, repeat the process, and the infection spreads.
The researchers studied alphaviruses, a group of RNA viruses that cause fever, encephalitis and infectious arthritis. They showed that a single-letter change in the RNA of an alphavirus strengthened the stem-loop. When the structure was stable, a key immune system protein called Ifit1 was blocked from binding to the viral RNA and the infection continued unchecked. But when the stem-loop was unstable, Ifit1 would bind to the viral RNA and disable it, stopping the infectious process.
"Knowing about this built-in viral defense mechanism gives us a new opportunity to improve treatment of infection," Diamond said. "To control emergent infections, we must continue to look for ways that viruses have antagonized our natural defense mechanisms and discover how to disable them."

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Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Washington University in St. Louis. The original article was written by Michael C. Purdy. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length

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FDA to Investigate Testosterone Risk

The FDA will investigate the risk of cardiovascular disease and death with testosterone therapy, a move prompted by two studies that raised questions about the risk of the highly-promoted hormone.
The agency said it had been monitoring the potential risks and decided to advance its investigation after the studies reported an increased risk of stroke, heart attack, and death among men taking testosterone.
One study of U.S. Veterans Affairs data published in JAMA last November concluded that veterans taking the drug had a significantly increased risk of stroke, heart attack, and death.
The other study, reported this week in PLOS One, found an increased risk of heart attack in older men -- and also in younger men with pre-existing heart disease -- who filled a prescription for testosterone therapy.
FDA did not say when the review will be completed, but told patients not to stop taking their medications, but to talk with their doctors if they had questions.
Clinicians should consider whether the benefits of treatment will outweigh its potential risks, the agency said.
The review applies to testosterone topical gel, transdermal patch, a buccal system, and injections.
The FDA asked clinicians and patients to report adverse effects to its MedWatch program
 written by  Kristina Fiore

Sources  http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/GeneralEndocrinology/44081

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The human gut has the highest concentration of HIV target immune cells,

One of the first things HIV does when it first enters the body is mess up the gut. Now, the open access journal PLOS Pathogens reports the first 3D ultra-structural study of the human immunodeficiency virus in a live host.
The human gut has the highest concentration of HIV target immune cells, most of which the virus destroys within days of infection. This happens even before a measurable drop of immune CD4 T cells occurs in the bloodstream.
Studies using high-resolution imaging of HIV-infected tissue have revealed details of the structure of HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, and have demonstrated how it infects cells and accumulates in different tissue sub-structures.
But until now, these have been confined to infected cultured cells or purified virus.
In this new study, a team led by Pamela Bjorkman, a professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology, has - for the first time - used 3D electron microscopes to show active HIV infection in the gut of mice with humanized immune systems infected with HIV-1.

HIV particles bud from host cells and gather in pools

The study is important because it shows how HIV behaves in infected tissue that closely resembles the gut of human patients.

Pools of mature HIV-1 virions populate intercellular spaces highlighted by segmentation (blue: viral envelope, magenta: conical cores).
Image credit: Ladinsky et al.

While some of the findings confirm earlier ones from cultured cell studies, there are also some results that have not been seen before, revealing new insights about how HIV spreads in real life.
For example, the researchers caught virus particles in the act of budding from their host "virus-factory" cells and gathering in pools between cells.
From one such cell, they counted 63 virus particles that it had most likely released.
The team suggests the host cells probably produce more than this, but because their method cannot show particles further away from the cell, they could not prove it.
But they were able to deduce that virus particles they could see furthest from the host cell were more mature than those closest to it, which made them think the cell releases them in waves.

'Synapses' may not be the major route of HIV transmission

Additionally, the team found that not only do some released virus particles attach directly to neighboring host cells - in what are termed "virological synapses" - but also others appear to travel quite far from their "mother" cell to the target cell.
Prof. Bjorkman, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, says for her, this was an important finding:

"The spread of viruses through synapses had been speculated to be a major route of transmission in tissue, but our results reveal large pools of free virions. This discovery provides hope that possible therapeutics, such as antibodies, would be able to access infecting viruses that are not hidden within a virological synapse."

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/271996.php

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Vodka confirmed as major factor in early death of Russian men

A large study shows that alcohol - and, in particular, vodka - is responsible for Russia's high and sharply fluctuating death rates. Russia currently has an abnormally high early death rate in men - 25% of all Russian men will die before the age of 55.
One of the authors of the new study, Prof. Sir Richard Peto, explains:
"Russian death rates have fluctuated wildly over the past 30 years as alcohol restrictions and social stability varied under Presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin, and the main thing driving these wild fluctuations in death was vodka. This has been shown in retrospective studies, and now we've confirmed it in a big, reliable prospective study."
Prof. Peto and his colleagues note that under Mikhail Gorbachev's alcohol restrictions in the mid-1980s, alcohol consumption and death rates both fell by 25%.
Following the collapse of communism there was a steep rise again in both alcohol consumption and death rates. More recently, there has been a drop in consumption of spirits as a result of Russia's 2006 alcohol policy reforms. Again, the death rates have corresponded, with a fall in risk of death before age 55.
Study leader Prof. David Zaridze, from the Russian Cancer Research Centre in Moscow, says:

"The significant decline in Russian mortality rates following the introduction of moderate alcohol controls in 2006 demonstrates the reversibility of the health crisis from hazardous drinking. People who drink spirits in hazardous ways greatly reduce their risk of premature death as soon as they stop."

Risk tied to drinking three or more bottles of vodka a week

However, the risks of early death are still substantial. The new study, which is published in The Lancet, recorded for up to a decade the vodka-drinking habits of 151,00 Russians. By the end of the study period, 8,000 of the participants had died.
The study found that men who drank three or more bottles of vodka a week were much more likely to die than men who drank less than one bottle each week.
The risk of death for men aged between 35 and 54 who drank three or more half-liter bottles of vodka a week was 35%. Men who drank less than one bottle in the same age group had a risk of death of 16%.
Between the ages of 55 and 74, the risk of death for the heavier drinkers was 64%, and 50% for the men who drank less than one bottle a week.
The main causes of death among the heavy drinkers were alcohol poisoning, accidents, violence, suicide, throat cancer, liver cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia, pancreatitis, liver disease and heart disease.

More effective alcohol policy is needed

"Because some who said they were light drinkers later became heavy drinkers, and vice-versa," says co-author Dr. Paul Brennan, "the differences in mortality that we observed must substantially under-estimate the real hazards of persistent heavy drinking."
Commenting on the study, Dr. Jürgen Rehm, from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada, says, however, that the overall volume of alcohol consumed in Russia cannot explain on its own the high mortality rates.
"It is the combination of high overall volume with the specific pattern of episodic binges that is necessary to explain the high level and fluctuating trends of total and alcohol-attributed mortality in Russia," he says.

"Since the average life expectancy from birth for men in Russia is still only 64 years, ranking among the lowest 50 countries in the world, more effective alcohol and tobacco policy measures are urgently needed."

In 2012, Medical News Today reported on a study comparing the health implications of drinking vodka with drinking wine.
Written by David McNamee

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Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update

27 January 2014 - WHO has been notified of two additional laboratory-confirmed cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
Details of the cases are as follows:

• WHO was notified of one case by the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia. The case is a 54 year old man from Riyadh who developed respiratory illness symptoms on 29 December, 2013 and was hospitalized on 4 January, 2014. The patient received medical treatment in an intensive care unit. He died on 14 January 2014. Samples tested positive for MERS-CoV after his death. The patient was a health care worker. He had a history of chronic disease and had no history of contacts with animals or contact with known cases of MERS-CoV. In addition, he had no travel history. The investigation is ongoing.
• WHO was notified of one case by the Ministry of Health of Jordan on 23 January, 2014. The case is a 48 year old man who became ill on 31 December, 2013 and developed fever, dry cough, difficulty in breathing, abdominal pain and vomiting, and was admitted to a hospital on 9 January, 2014. While there, his condition worsened and on 16 January he was placed on mechanical ventilation. The patient died on 23 January. A sample taken from the patient on 21 January tested positive by PCR for MERS-CoV.
  The patient had underlying health conditions and he had travelled to the United Kingdom from 12 November to 25 December 2013 seeking treatment for his underlying conditions. The patient had no history of animal contact and is believed to have not attended any large social events in the last 30 days. It is reported that he had received 2 guests from Kuwait between 25 December and 31 December, 2013.
  National authorities in Jordan are following family contacts, medical staff and health workers, in addition to strictly applying infection control measures. Further investigations are ongoing in Jordan and UK.

Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 180 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 77 deaths.
MERS-CoV infections that may be acquired in health care facilities illustrate the need to continue to strengthen infection prevention and control measures. Health care facilities that provide care for patients suspected or confirmed with MERS-CoV infection should take appropriate measures to decrease the risk of transmission of the virus to other patients, health care workers and visitors. Education and training for infection prevention and control should be provided to all health care workers and regularly refreshed.
Early identification of the MERS-CoV is important, but not all the cases could be reliably and timely detected, especially when disease is mild or presents atypically. Therefore, it is important to ensure that standard precautions are consistently used for all patients and all work practices all of the time, regardless of suspected or confirmed infection with the MERS-CoV or any other pathogen. Droplet precautions should be added when providing care to all patients with symptoms of acute respiratory infection, and contact precautions plus eye protection should be added when caring for confirmed or probable cases of MERS-CoV infection. Airborne precautions are indicated when performing aerosol generating procedures.
When the clinical and epidemiological clues strongly suggest MERS-CoV, the patient should be managed as potentially infected, even if an initial test on a nasopharyngeal swab is negative. Repeat testing should be done when the initial testing is negative, preferably on specimens from the lower respiratory tract.
WHO encourages all Member States to continue their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and to carefully review any unusual patterns.
Health care providers are advised to maintain vigilance. Recent travellers returning from the Middle East who develop SARI should be tested for MERS-CoV as advised in the current surveillance recommendations.
All Member States are reminded to promptly assess and notify WHO of any new case of infection with MERS-CoV, along with information about potential exposures that may have resulted in infection and a description of the clinical course. Investigation into the source of exposure should promptly be initiated to identify the mode of exposure, so that further transmission of the virus can be prevented.
People at high risk of severe disease due to MERS-CoV should avoid close contact with animals when visiting farms or barn areas where the virus is known to be potentially circulating. For the general public, when visiting a farm or a barn, general hygiene measures, such as regular hand washing before and after touching animals, avoiding contact with sick animals, and following food hygiene practices, should be adhered to.
WHO does not advise special screening at points of entry with regard to this event nor does it currently recommend the application of any travel or trade restrictions.

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Want to get the flu? Volunteers sneeze for science

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Signing Up to Get the Flu in Rare Gov't Study

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Forget being sneezed on: Government scientists are deliberately giving dozens of volunteers the flu by squirting the live virus straight up their noses.

It may sound bizarre, but the rare type of research is a step in the quest for better flu vaccines. It turns out that how the body fends off influenza remains something of a mystery.
"Vaccines are working, but we could do better," said Dr. Matthew Memoli of the National Institutes of Health, who is leading the study that aims to infect up to 100 adults over the next year.
Wait a minute: Flu is sweeping the country, so why not just study the already sick? That wouldn't let scientists measure how the immune system reacts through each step of infection, starting with that first exposure to the virus.
It's not an experiment to be taken lightly. After all, the flu kills thousands of Americans a year. For safety, Memoli chose a dose that produces mild to moderate symptoms — and accepts only volunteers who are healthy and no older than 50.
And to avoid spreading the germs, participants must spend at least nine days quarantined inside a special isolation ward at the NIH hospital, their health closely monitored. They're not released until nasal tests prove they're no longer contagious.

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In this Jan. 14, 2014, photo, Daniel Bennett, 26, of College Park, Md., has live flu virus sprayed i …

The incentive: About $3,000 to compensate for their time.
"I received a very scolding email from my mother" about signing up, Daniel Bennett, 26, said with a grin.
"Their standards are so high, I don't believe I'm in danger," added Bennett, a restaurant worker from College Park, Md. "I don't get sick that often."
A masked and gloved Memoli had Bennett lie flat for about a minute.
"It will taste salty. Some will drip down the back of your throat," Memoli said, before squeezing a syringe filled with millions of microscopic virus particles, floating in salt water, into each nostril.

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In this Jan. 14, 2014 photo, Dr. Matthew Memoli, an infectious disease specialist, handles doses of  …

Sure enough, a few days later Bennett had the runny nose and achiness of mild flu.
The best defense against influenza is a yearly vaccine, but it's far from perfect. In fact, the vaccine is least effective in people age 65 and older — the group most susceptible to flu — probably because the immune system weakens with age.
Understanding how younger adults' bodies fight flu may help scientists determine what the more vulnerable elderly are missing, clues to help develop more protective vaccines for everyone, Memoli explained.
Here's the issue: The vaccine is designed to raise people's levels of a particular flu-fighting antibody. It targets a protein that acts like the virus' coat, called hemagglutinin — the "H'' in H1N1, the strain that caused the 2009 pandemic and that is causing the most illness so far this winter, too.
But it's not clear what antibody level is best to aim for — or whether a certain amount means you're protected against getting sick at all, or that you'd get a mild case instead of a severe one.

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In this Jan. 14, 2014 photo, Dr. Matthew Memoli, an infectious disease specialist, sprays live flu v …

"As mind-boggling as it is, we don't know the answer to that," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "We made some assumptions that we knew everything about flu."
Just targeting hemagglutinin probably isn't enough, Memoli added. Already, some people in his study didn't get sick, despite remarkably low antibody levels, meaning something else must be protecting them.
Could it be antibodies against the "N'' in flu's name, the neuraminidase protein? Specific T cells that are activated to fight infection? Genes that switch on and off when a virus invades?
To begin finding out, Memoli first developed a laboratory-grown copy of the H1N1 flu strain and sprayed different amounts into volunteers' noses until he found the right dose to trigger mild flu. He hopes eventually to test the harsher H3N2 strain, too.
Now he's infecting two groups — people with low antibody levels and those with high levels. Some were recently vaccinated, and some weren't. He'll compare how sick they get, how long they're contagious and how the immune system jumps into action.

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In this Jan. 14, 2014, photo, Daniel Bennett, 26, of College Park, Md., has live flu virus sprayed i …

Called a human challenge study, this kind of research hasn't been performed with flu viruses in the U.S. for more than a decade, before scientists had ways as sophisticated to measure what happens.

"It's all going to add up to a better understanding of what you need to have to be protected against the flu," said Dr. John Treanor, a flu specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center who is closely watching the work.

So far, Memoli's patients are becoming contagious a day or two before they start feeling bad, one reason the flu spreads so easily. He sees a range of symptoms, from sniffles to a few days of moderate fever, fatigue and congestion.

Bennett's flu was pretty mild, and he passed the time studying, watching TV and playing games with the four other study participants infected this month.

"All I had to do was read and watch movies, so it wasn't that terrible," Bennett said. "It was a really cool experience" to see how research is done

Source: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3844933659204255169#editor/target=post;postID=3327878343439322590

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A new inhaled drug to treat a serious lung condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

GlaxoSmithKline's Anoro Ellipta drug has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat a serious lung condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

GlaxoSmithKline's Anoro Ellipta is meant to be used once a day for long-term maintenance of airflow in patients with COPD. The lung disease makes breathing difficult and worsens over time.

"Anoro Ellipta works by helping the muscles around the airways of the lungs stay relaxed to increase airflow in patients with COPD," Dr. Curtis Rosebraugh, director of the Office of Drug Evaluation II in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in an agency news release.

"The availability of new long-term maintenance medications provides additional treatment options for the millions of Americans who suffer with COPD," he added.

Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said the new medication is a "unique combination" of two drugs presently used for COPD. "It combines a drug similar to Spiriva and a [long-acting beta agonist] as found in Advair, he said. "There is no steroid in Anoro Ellipta."

According to the FDA, Anoro Ellipta combines umeclidinium, a drug that prevents muscles around the large airways from tightening, and vilanterol, which improves breathing by relaxing the muscles of the airways to allow more air to flow into and out of the lungs.

Another lung specialist, Dr. Charles Powell, called the approval a "promising development for patients with COPD," noting other countries already allow this type of medication.

"Combined long-acting bronchodilators are available in Europe. Now we have the first approved combined long-acting bronchodilator medication available in the U.S.," said Powell, who is chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Mount Sinai - National Jewish Health Respiratory Institute in New York City.

"Combining two effective bronchodilators can result in improved lung function and medication compliance compared to traditional COPD inhaled medications," Powell said.

The FDA approval is based on findings from more than 2,400 people with COPD. The results showed that those who took the drug had greater improvements in lung function than those who took a placebo. The most common side effects reported by patients who took Anoro Ellipta included sore throat, sinus infection, lower respiratory tract infection, constipation, diarrhea, pain in extremities, muscle spasms, neck pain and chest pain.

Serious side effects that can be caused by the drug include narrowing and obstruction of the airway, cardiovascular effects, increased pressure in the eyes, and worsening of urinary retention.

Anoro Ellipta is not approved for asthma treatment and should not be used as a rescue treatment for sudden breathing problems, the FDA said. The drug carries a boxed warning that the class of drugs that vilanterol belongs to increases the risk of asthma-related death.

"Patients with COPD need to be seen and examined before determining the appropriate use of this drug, as with any medication," added Horovitz.

Cigarette smoking is the main contributor to COPD, which is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Symptoms can include chest tightness, chronic cough and excessive phlegm.

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Tangazo la ajira kada ya afya 2013/2014

Katibu Mkuu, Wizara ya Afya na Ustawi wa Jamii anapenda kuwatangazia

nafasi za kazi kwa wote wenye taaluma za Kada za Afya ambao wako tayari kufanya kazi katika Utumishi wa Umma

Kwa melezo zaidi tembelea: 

www.moh.go.tz

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CPR of Unresponsive Adult (Age > 8 Y): Witnessed Collapse

If a patient becomes unresponsive (no response to verbal or tactile stimuli, ie, "shake and shout"), call for help (CODE, 911). Do not move the patient unless in immediate danger.

1. Get a defibrillator or AED to the bedside stat.

2. Stand or kneel at the patient's shoulder. Position patient on back as a unit, protecting the neck.

3. Airway. Open the patient's airway. If there are signs of airway compromise (apnea, stridor, coughing, use of accessory muscles), immediately open and clear the airway using the head tilt-chin lift method (nonprofessional rescuer) or a jaw thrust (health care provider) if cervical spinal injury is suspected.

4. If a foreign body is visualized in the airway, and can easily be removed, remove it. If airway care is needed, proceed according to clinical need (see Emergency Airway and Ventilatory Support).

5. Breathing. Determine whether the patient is breathing by looking, listening, and feeling. Look at the patient's chest to determine whether there are signs of movement. Listen at the patient's mouth and nose to determine whether air is being moved through (escaping) from the upper airway. Feel for warm, moist air coming out of the mouth and nose by placing your ear close to the patient's mouth and nose.

6. If the patient is breathing, place him or her in the recovery position: a stable, side-lying position in which the tongue does not block the airway and fluid can drain from the mouth. Keep the spine straight, and position the arms so that the chest is not compressed. Continue to monitor the patient for breathing. Call for assistance!

7. If the patient is not breathing, ventilate by administering two positive-pressure breaths. Allowing 1 s per breath using either a bag valve mask or a barrier device such as a pocket mask.

8. Circulation. To determine whether there are signs of circulation, check the neck for a carotid pulse for 10 s (health care provider). However, if there is any doubt regarding the presence or absence of a pulse, start chest compressions.

9. If there is a definite pulse, give 1 breath every 5–6 s, approximately 10–12 breaths/min, rechecking for a pulse every 2 min. If an advanced airway is placed, ventilate with 8–10 breaths/min (approximately 1 breath every 6–8 s asynchronously).

10. If there are no obvious signs of circulation, begin chest compressions: Place both hands the patient's sternum, the heel of one hand on top of the heel of the other. Push fast and push hard, to a depth of 1.5–2.0 in (4–5 cm), allowing full recoil of the chest. Continue compressions until a defibrillator or an AED is brought to the patient's side. If a defibrillator is not immediately available, continue chest compressions and ventilations at a ratio of 30/2 at a rate of approximately 100 compressions/min.

11. When the defibrillator or AED arrives, attach the two pads to the patient's bare chest. Right-sided sternal pad: right superoanterior infraclavicular position; left-sided apical pad: inferolateral left side of chest lateral to the left breast. Minimize interruption of chest compressions and compress until the pads are on the chest, if possible.

12. Stop compressions. Analyze the rhythm, and if indicated (presence of VF or pulseless VT), deliver a single shock.

13. Immediately resume CPR for another 5 cycles of 30 compressions/2 breaths (2 min). Do not check for a pulse until another 5 cycles of CPR have been performed. The defibrillated, stunned myocardium may not yet be pumping efficiently.

14. If there is no pulse, resume CPR, recharge the defibrillator and administer another single shock followed by immediate CPR.

15. If unsuccessful, proceed to the advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) algorithms and guidelines.

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Caution on Transporting Critically Ill Patients

"Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong" is especially true during the transport of critically ill patients. Adherence to common sense guidelines helps to minimize the risk of adverse events:

1. Maintain the patient's airway; if the airway is tenuous, intubate the patient before transport.

2. Transport only stable patients (unless the role of transport is to provide a life-saving intervention).

3. Pay attention to IV catheters and pumps and their connections.

4. Bring sufficient oxygen, IV fluids, medications, etc.

5. Adequate assistance must be available to safely transport the patient and associated equipment; the destination should be prepared to accept the patient.

6. Expect the unexpected; have personnel, equipment, and supplies available that can make the difference in a crisis (eg, drugs and equipment for reintubation, bag valve mask).

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Practicing with a partner improves performance, study shows

We all know the saying, "practice makes perfect." But new research suggests that a skill can benefit from even greater improvement if a person is practicing it with a partner. This is according to a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The research team from Imperial College London in the UK, alongside two institutions in Japan, says their findings may be able to help patients in rehabilitation after suffering a stroke.
The investigators conducted a series of experimental sessions with 68 volunteers.
Participants were required to operate a robotic device similar to a joystick in order to move a cursor in an attempt to track a moving target on a computer screen.
In some experiments, the participants carried out this task on their own. However, in other experiments, the participants were connected to the hands of a partner who was operating a similar device using a "virtual elastic band."
Although the participants were physically connected to a partner and could feel the force of their movements during the experiments, they were not consciously aware that they were connected to a partner.
According to the researchers, the sequence of the tasks was established in advance, although the subjects did not know this.

Better performance when practicing with a partner

The researchers found that every time a participant was working with a partner during a task, they achieved better results than when on their own, even though the majority of subjects were unaware they were working with a partner.
Furthermore, the investigators found that when participants were carrying out a task with a partner, the greatest improvements in performance were seen when both partners were at similar levels.
Commenting on the findings, Dr. Etienne Burdet, of the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, says:

"They say it takes two to tango and it seems that for physical tasks, practising with a partner really does improve performance.
Our study is helping us to understand how touch plays a vital and very subtle role in helping people to transmit information to one another. This was the case in our study even when people couldn't see their partner or feel their partner's skin."

Potential for improved rehabilitation

The investigators say they are interested in how their findings may help aid individuals in rehabilitation, such as patients recovering from a stroke.
They explain that robotic devices, such as the one used in this study, are being used more frequently in rehabilitation and physiotherapy, and that if these devices could react to patients in a similar way to humans, this could improve treatment.
Atsushi Takagi, of the Department of Engineering at Imperial College London and co-author of the study, says:
"Humans are intensely social creatures and it is no surprise that we've developed non-verbal communication techniques to help us improve the way we carry out tasks. Touch is an essential tool in our communication arsenal."

"It's fascinating that this kind of communication can be so powerful even when people can't see each other. Excitingly, getting robotic devices to mimic this process could help people make bigger improvements when they are carrying out exercises in rehabilitation."

Last year, Medical News Today reported on a study suggesting that a loving touch may sustain a healthy sense of self.
Written by Honor Whiteman

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Bad version of 'good' cholesterol causes disease

Studies have suggested that a form of so-called good cholesterol, or high-density lipoprotein, can become dysfunctional and instead of protecting against heart disease becomes a promoter of it, actively clogging up and hardening arteries.
Now, new research led by the Cleveland Clinic in the US has discovered the molecular process that makes "good" cholesterol start behaving badly.
They found that Apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1), an important structural molecule that helps transfer cholesterol out of artery walls and send it to the liver for excretion, can become oxidized while in the artery wall. Once oxidized, it loses its protective properties and instead contributes to the development of coronary artery disease.
They describe their findings in a paper published online in Nature Medicine.
Senior author Stanley Hazen, section head of Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation in the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, says:

"Identifying the structure of dysfunctional apoA1 and the process by which it becomes disease-promoting instead of disease-preventing is the first step in creating new tests and treatments for cardiovascular disease."

Their findings help explain why, despite the fact extensive studies have reported how high-density lipoprotein (HDL) protects the heart, clinical trials of drugs to raise HDL levels have so far failed to show they significantly improve cardiovascular health.

Oxidized form of apoA1 found in artery walls disrupts cholesterol removal

Also, researchers have recently been finding apoA1, normally abundant in HDL, is present in an oxidized form in diseased artery walls.
For the last 5 years, Dr. Hazen, who is also vice chair of Translational Research for the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues have been developing a way to identify dysfunctional apoA1/HDL and find how it becomes oxidized.
The protein becomes oxidized by a compound called myeloperoxidase (MPO).
In their report of this latest study, they describe showing how in test tubes "oxidation of either apoA1 or HDL particles by MPO impairs their cholesterol acceptor function," thus disabling the ability to ferry cholesterol out of the artery wall.
They then tested blood from 627 patients attending the Clinic and found higher levels of dysfunctional HDL raised their risk for cardiovascular disease.
The researchers suggest their findings highlight some new possible targets for drugs that might prevent formation of dysfunctional HDL and thus block its promotion of atherosclerosis.
Dr. Hazen says:

"Now that we know what this dysfunctional protein looks like, we are developing a clinical test to measure its levels in the bloodstream, which will be a valuable tool for both assessing cardiovascular disease risk in patients and for guiding development of HDL-targeted therapies to prevent disease."

Grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) helped to finance the study.
Meanwhile in a study published in JAMA Neurology in 2013, another team of US researchers describe how they discovered a link between cholesterol and brain deposits that cause Alzheimer's. They found both higher levels of HDL - or "good" cholesterol - and lower levels of LDL - or "bad" cholesterol - in the bloodstream were associated with fewer amyloid plaque deposits in the brain. Such plaques are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

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Hearing loss in older adults linked to faster brain shrinkage

Scientists have long known that as we age, our brain becomes smaller. But new research from the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland suggests that older adults who suffer from hearing loss are more likely to experience a higher level of brain shrinkage at a faster rate.
To reach their findings, recently published online in the journal NeuroImage, the research team analyzed 126 participants aged between 56 and 86 years for up to a 10-year period.
During this time, participants were required to undergo yearly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans for their brain changes to be tracked.
At the baseline of the study, subjects also underwent physical examinations, including hearing tests. At this point, 71 participants had normal hearing, while 51 had impaired hearing with a minimum loss of 25 decibels.

Hearing impairment 'shrinks brain faster'

After analyzing all MRIs that had been conducted over the years, the investigators found that participants who had impaired hearing at the baseline of the study experienced brain atrophy - brain shrinkage - at a faster rate, compared with subjects who had normal hearing.

Researchers found that hearing loss in older adults may be associated with faster brain shrinkage and increased brain tissue loss.

Participants with impaired hearing also lost at least an extra cubic centimeter more of brain tissue every year, compared with those who had normal hearing.
Additionally, the investigators found that impaired hearing was linked to increased brain shrinkage in certain areas, including the superior, middle and inferior temporal gyri. These are brain structures that play a part in processing speech and sound.
But Frank Lin, of the schools of medicine and public health at Johns Hopkins University and lead author of the study, says it is not surprising that these particular brain structures were affected.
He explains that because people with hearing loss tend to use speech and sound less, brain structures linked to these processes are more likely to shrink due to lack of stimulation.
However, Lin notes that the middle and inferior temporal gyri are also associated with memory and cognition, and research has shown that these areas of the brain play a part in the early stages of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

Address hearing loss 'sooner rather than later'

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), approximately 36 million American adults report some degree of hearing loss.

Lin says their findings emphasize the importance of treating hearing loss as early as possible, adding:

"Our results suggest that hearing loss could be another 'hit' on the brain in many ways.
If you want to address hearing loss well, you want to do it sooner rather than later. If hearing loss is potentially contributing to these differences we're seeing on MRI, you want to treat it before these brain structural changes take place."

The investigators say that further studies are warranted to investigate whether treating hearing loss early may reduce the risk of associated health issues.
Last year, Medical News Today reported on a study suggesting that musical training in early childhood may have a positive effect on how the brain processes sound later in life.
Written by Honor Whiteman

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Cancer survivors who exercise live longer

Earlier diagnosis and medical improvements means many cancer survivors are living longer. Now, a new study of over 1,000 male cancer survivors suggests being physically active may add even more years to their lives.
The study investigators, including researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, report their findings in the January issue of the Journal of Physical Activity & Health.
They analyzed data on 1,021 male cancer survivors who were part of the Harvard Alumni Health Study, whose participants entered Harvard as undergraduates between 1916 and 1950.
The average age of the men was 71 when they filled in questionnaires about their physical activities in 1988, about 6 years after their cancer diagnosis. Men diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer were not included.
The questionnaires asked the men about not only sports or recreational activity, but also general activity, such as walking and stair climbing. This physical activity data was then updated in 1993.
During a follow-up that lasted until 2008, the researchers counted 777 deaths among the participants, including 335 from cancer and 190 from cardiovascular disease.
To analyze the data, they grouped the men according to how many calories per week they burned during physical activity and looked at the link between these groups and rates of death.

Men who exercised the most were least likely to die during follow-up

After adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI), smoking, diet and early parental death, the researchers found the men who burned the most calories per week through exercise (over 12,600 calories), were 48% less likely to die from any cause over the follow-up period than men who burned the least (under 2,100 calories per week).
As a rough guide, a man who weighs 176 pounds (80 kg) burns around 4,200 calories a week by walking briskly for about 30 minutes a day on 5 days of the week.
The researchers also found that higher levels of physical activity were linked to lower rates of death from cancer and cardiovascular disease

They suggest physical activity should be "actively promoted" to extend the lives of cancer survivors.
Grants from the National Institutes of Health helped finance the study.
Meanwhile, another group of researchers also recently reported in The Journal of Cancer Survivorship that older breast cancer survivors benefit from exercise programs.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

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Why flu medication could make you more infectious

Employees who take anti-fever medication so they can soldier on through the flu may be putting their colleagues at risk because it makes them more infectious, scientists have found. 

"No-one likes to feel miserable, but it turns out that our comfort might be at the cost of infecting others.
"Because fever can actually help lower the amount of virus in a sick person's body and reduce the chance of transmitting disease to others, taking drugs that reduce fever can increase transmission.
"We've discovered that this increase has significant effects when we scale up to the level of the whole population."
He added: "People often take - or give their kids - fever-reducing drugs so they can go to work or school.
"They may think the risk of infecting others is lower because the fever is lower. In fact, the opposite may be true: the ill people may give off more virus because fever has been reduced."
The researchers assembled information from many sources, including experiments on human volunteers and on ferrets which are the best animal model for human influenza.
They then used a mathematical model to compute how the increase in the amount of virus given off by a single person taking fever-reducing drugs would increase the overall number of cases in a typical year, or in a year when a new strain of influenza caused a flu pandemic.
Results showed that suppressing the fever increases the number of annual cases by around five per cent, corresponding to more than 1,000 additional deaths from flu in a typical year across North America.
Doctor David Price, professor and chair of family medicine for McMaster's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, said: "This research is important because it will help us understand how better to curb the spread of influenza."
"Fever is a defence mechanism to protect ourselves and others. Fever-reducing medication should only be taken to take the edge off the discomfort, not to allow people to go out into the community when they should still stay home.
"People are often advised to take fever-reducing drugs and medical texts state that doing so is harmless. This view needs to change."
The findings echo previous research that has shown how the widespread use of medication can have unwanted effects on the transmission of disease.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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Children of older fathers more likely to have mental health disorders

Men warned - 'biological' clock means children of older fathers are more likely to suffer mental disorders 

Professor McGrath said further research was needed before public health experts advised older men against having children but “we need to worry about it”. “The father’s age may have implications for the health of the offspring,” he said.
“There are many benefits for having an older father – sometimes they have more stable jobs or may have had kids already and be better dads. But we are starting to pick up the risks associated with older fathers.”
More than 75,000 babies in Britain are born to fathers aged 40 and over each year, or more than one in 10 of all births.
This includes more than 6,000 born to fathers aged 50 or over. The average age of fathering a child in this country is 32.
Dr Allen Pacey, fertility expert from the University of Sheffield, said: “This is consistent with a lot of previous research but this is probably the biggest dataset yet, and it does confiirm that men are not immune to reproductive ageing. “
The senior lecturer in andrology said: “Men produce sperm throughout their lives so it’s possible to get a woman pregnant but the evidence says the health of the chidlren born to older fathers is not as good - the risks are small, but they are detectable.”
He said men needed to think about the extra risks attached with older parenthood, though health risks to the child from older motherhood are far greater.
The research, conducted by the University of Queensland, used Danish health registers to examine 2,894,688 people born in Denmark from 1955 to 2006.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, examined the age of mothers and fathers, and levels of mental disorders in their offspring.
However, it did not consider socio-economic factors, which previous studies suggest are likely explain to explain the higher risk amoung teenage mothers.
Researchers said it was possible that men who had their first child late in life had a higher likelihood of mental health disorders than other men.
Previous studies which adjusted for age at first fatherhood did not find an increased risk among older fathers who already children.
While men can often reproduce into old age and until they die, numerous studies have linked older fathers to negative health outcomes in their children.
A study in Iceland last year found older fathers were more likely to pass on a greater number of genetic mutations, or traits not typically found in either parent.
Professor McGrath said the latest findings suggest the sperm of older men may contain an increasing number of DNA errors.
“Mutation in the developing sperm cell may contribute to an increased risk for a surprisingly wide range of mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, autism and mental retardation,” he said. “The absolute risk of these disorders is still very low – but people should know about them.”

Sources: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/10590448/Children-of-older-fathers-more-likely-to-have-mental-health-disorders.html

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Stethoscopes on their way out

 

Stethoscopes are on their way out, after 200 years - experts say - as they are replaced by "smartphone-style" devices 

They add: “Many experts have argued that ultrasound has become the stethoscope of the 21st century.”
There have been concerns that the smaller modern devices offer inferior image quality compared with larger ultrasounds. But the article suggests that these are outweighed by the speed with which some diagnoses can be made.
Indeed, the authors – Professor Jagat Narula, the editor, and Associate Professor Bret Nelson, both from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York – claim that ultrasound can diagnose heart, lung, and other problems with much more accuracy than the 200-year-old stethoscope.
The device – which allows for the monitoring of the lungs, heart and intestines, as well as blood flow – was invented in France in 1816, by René Laennec, a French physician, to get around problems in dealing with an overweight patient who had problems with her heart.
Before the stethoscope, doctors would place their ear directly onto the patient’s chest, a practice called auscultation. But because of the young woman’s size, Laennec, thought it would be improper and inadequate to do so.
Instead, he rolled up a sheet of paper into a tube and placed one end on the patient. The tube magnified sound, and Laennec found he could hear her lung sounds easily by putting his ear to the open end.
The paper was soon replaced by early versions consisting simply of a wooden tube, similar to an ear trumpet. Over the course of the nineteenth century, this design was replaced by something more recognisable as the device still used today. Electronic stethoscopes that amplify the sounds in the chest and produce graphs were developed in the 1970s.
The authors claim that the high cost of the modern “smartphone-style" devices – which can cost thousands of pounds – has been hampering their spread, but predict their growth will continue.
“Certainly the stage is set for disruption; as LPs were replaced by cassettes, then CDs and. mp3s, so too might the stethoscope yield to ultrasound,” they write.
However, they do reflect that some doctors might be unwilling to hang up their stethoscopes, suggesting that “as some audiophiles still maintain the phonograph provides the truest sound”, some clinicians may “cling to the analog acoustics of the stethoscope?”
Dr Michael Dixon, chairman of the College of Medicine and a Devon GP, said: "I remain pretty addicted to my stethoscope. It is so much a part of what we do and is very symbolic. It suggests treatment as well as diagnosis, and a connection.
"The problem for many is the alienation between doctor and patients that comes from computers. If you start to introduce more machines, it could have a negative effect."

 SOURCES: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10592653/Stethoscopes-on-their-way-out.html

 

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Amazing Medical Facts of the Body

In one square inch of our hand we have nine feet of blood vessels, 600 pain sensors, 9000 nerve endings, 36 heat sensors and 75 pressure sensors.

Read more: Interesting Facts about the Human Body / Amazing Medical Facts of the Body | Medindia http://www.medindia.net/facts/index.asp?startpage=1#ixzz2rJ3RLosM

Considering all the tissues and cells in your body, 25 million new cells are being produced each second. That's a little less than the population of Canada - every second !

Read more: Interesting Facts about the Human Body / Amazing Medical Facts of the Body | Medindia http://www.medindia.net/facts/index.asp?startpage=1#ixzz2rJ4B2nx5

Our heart beats around 100,00 times every day

Read more: Interesting Facts about the Human Body / Amazing Medical Facts of the Body | Medindia http://www.medindia.net/facts/index.asp?startpage=1#ixzz2rJ4MNi9H

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Fish Oil Might Guard Against Loss of Brain Cells

 By Mary Brophy Marcus
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 22, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- The more you consume the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils, the less likely you are to lose as many precious brain cells as you age, a new study suggests.
More research is needed, however, to understand both why this happens and how much of the nutrient brings about the most benefit, the researchers said.
"Our findings support the idea that a higher omega-3 status from fish or supplements is good for brain health," said study author James Pottala, an assistant professor in the department of internal medicine at the University of South Dakota's Sanford School of Medicine.
According to the study, which was published online Jan. 22 in the journal Neurology, the researchers tested levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the red blood cells of more than 1,000 older women. Eight years later, the women had MRI scans that measured their brain volumes. At the time of the scans, the women were an average of 78 years old.
Participants whose omega-3 levels were twice as high had a 0.7 percent higher brain volume. "The results suggest that the effect on brain volume is the equivalent of delaying the normal loss of brain cells that comes with aging by one to two years," Pottala said.
Higher omega-3 levels also were associated with greater volume in the hippocampus, the region of the brain in which the memory-robbing disease Alzheimer's first attacks.
The study offers valuable information, said Dr. Gregory Cole, associate director of the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research at the University of Southern California.
"[The study] has a large number of subjects with an objective measure -- the measure of brain volume," Cole said. "Studies that measure things like [memory and thinking] are not as concrete. People have good days and bad days, but when you measure brain volume you get a pretty repeatable measure."
It's also a plus that the participants are all the same gender, so there is no gender variation in brain size to factor in, Cole said.
The study's findings are intriguing, said Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "[But] the results should be interpreted cautiously because it's an observational study and not a randomized clinical trial looking at the relationship between omega-3 intake and changes in brain volume," she said.
Although the study showed an association between omega-3 intake and improved brain health, it didn't necessarily prove a cause-and-effect link.
Manson is the principal investigator in a study involving more than 20,000 adults across the United States looking at whether taking daily dietary supplements of vitamin D or omega-3 fatty acids reduces the risk for certain diseases.
The study involves memory testing as well, Manson said. "We'll have some more information in another two to three years, and I think that will be important to see if increasing supplementation with omega-3s is having a clinical impact on [brain] function," she said.
Cole said clinical trials are the only way to find out if high omega-3 consumption really increases brain volume and reduces the risk for dementia.
"This is pretty believable. This is a solid finding," he said. "The question is: How can you translate this into [effectiveness] in people? Will it really work to protect peoples' brains?"
In the meantime, people who want to boost their omega-3 intake can eat nonfried 'oily' fish such as salmon, herring, tuna and sardines. The American Heart Association recommends eating at least two servings of fish a week.

 SOURCES:http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=176327

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Scientists Develop New Test to Help Detect Pancreatic Cancer Early

MicroRNAs regulate gene expression and play important roles in the development of tumors and tumor metastasis. MicroRNA panels are a combination of several microRNAs.

Nicolai A. Schultz, M.D., Ph.D., of Herlev Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues examined differences in microRNA in whole blood between patients with pancreatic cancer (n = 409) and healthy participants (n = 312) and patients with chronic pancreatitis (n = 25) to identify diagnostic panels of microRNAs for use in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Serum cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9; an antigen that is elevated in approximately 80 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer) was also measured for comparison.

The researchers identified 2 novel panels with the potential for diagnosing pancreatic cancer.

The authors write that the test could thereby diagnose more patients with pancreatic cancer, some of them at an early stage, and thus have a potential to increase the number of patients that can be operated on and possibly cured of pancreatic cancer.

The study has been published in the JAMA.
Source: http://www.medindia.net/news/scientists-develop-new-test-to-help-detect-pancreatic-cancer-early-130799-1.htm

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Researchers find genetic mutations that may cause schizophrenia

 

According to the World Health Organization, schizophrenia affects around 24 million people globally. It is unknown as to exactly what causes the condition, but an international team of researchers, led by Cardiff University in the UK, has discovered new genetic mutations that may provide further insight into the disorder.
This is according to a study recently published in the journal Nature.
Schizophrenia is a severe disabling brain condition that can cause a person to suffer hallucinations, delusions, abnormal thought processes and even agitated body movements.
The disorder is more common in late adolescence or early adulthood, but it can develop at any age.
Previous research has suggested that the cause of schizophrenia may lie in the genes. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 1% of the general population suffer from schizophrenia, but it occurs in 10% of people who have a first-degree relative with the disorder, such as a parent, sister or brother.
For this study, which the research team says is the largest genetic study of its kind, the investigators analyzed DNA blood samples from 623 individuals with schizophrenia and their parents.

Mutations 'trigger schizophrenia and related proteins'

The researchers discovered "de novo" mutations. These are gene alterations that are present in the individuals with schizophrenia but not their parents.
The team found that these mutations play a part in triggering schizophrenia. Furthermore, the mutations deliberately disrupt sets of proteins in the brain that are linked to regulating connection strength between nerve cells, brain development, learning, memory and cognition.
Prof. Mike Owen, co-leader of the study from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics at Cardiff University, says that alongside another study published in the same issue of Nature, these new findings confirm the importance of the mutations and the sets of proteins related to brain functions.
He adds:

"This degree of convergence from several studies is unprecedented in schizophrenia genetics and tells us that for the first time we have a handle on one of the core brain processes that is disrupted in the disorder."

The researchers say their findings may also suggest an "overlap" between the causes of schizophrenia and the causes of other neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism and intellectual disability.
They note that further research is needed to determine whether schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders share common mechanisms.
Commenting on the overall study findings, Prof. Hugh Perry, chair of the MRC Neurosciences and Mental Health Board at Cardiff University, says that understanding how a person's genetic code plays a part in schizophrenia is "crucial" to creating safer and better treatments for the condition.
"This study adds a body of rapidly emerging research being funded by the Medical Research Council on the role of the genome in mental illness. Such advances in developmental biology will help us to unravel the complexity of emotional and behavioral disturbances," he adds.
Last year, Medical News Today reported on a study detailing the discovery of abnormal neural activity in the brain that may cause individuals with schizophrenia to experience unorganized thought processes.
Written by Honor Whiteman

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