Healthcare News and Research

[ProfPacker]

Chicago, Illinois - The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has officially confirmed what many people thought all along: taking ‘selfies’ is a mental disorder.

The APA made this classification during its annual board of directors meeting in Chicago. The disorder is called selfitis, and is defined as the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of one’s self and post them on social media as a way to make up for the lack of self-esteem and to fill a gap in intimacy.

APA said there are three levels of the disorder:

Borderline selfitis : taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day but not posting them on social media
Acute selfitis: taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day and posting each of the photos on social media
Chronic selfitis: Uncontrollable urge to take photos of one’s self round the clock and posting the photos on social media more than six times a day
According to the APA, while there is currently no cure for the disorder, temporary treatment is available through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The other good news is that CBT is covered under Obamacare.

Read more: http://adobochronicles.com/2014/03/3...ntal-disorder/

[*Anya*]

Originally Posted by femmepacker

Chicago, Illinois - The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has officially confirmed what many people thought all along: taking ‘selfies’ is a mental disorder.

The APA made this classification during its annual board of directors meeting in Chicago. The disorder is called selfitis, and is defined as the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of one’s self and post them on social media as a way to make up for the lack of self-esteem and to fill a gap in intimacy.

APA said there are three levels of the disorder:

Borderline selfitis : taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day but not posting them on social media
Acute selfitis: taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day and posting each of the photos on social media
Chronic selfitis: Uncontrollable urge to take photos of one’s self round the clock and posting the photos on social media more than six times a day
According to the APA, while there is currently no cure for the disorder, temporary treatment is available through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The other good news is that CBT is covered under Obamacare.

Read more: http://adobochronicles.com/2014/03/3...ntal-disorder/

Taking Too Many Selfies? Don’t Worry, It’s Not a Disorder
By JOHN M. GROHOL, PSY.D.

A news article was recently published that described how the American Psychiatric Association had classified taking too many selfies as a new mental disorder.

The only problem? It wasn’t true.

Showing that far too many people don’t ever bother to check to see what kind of website they’re on, thousands of people tweeted and posted links to the fake news article. Nobody stopped for a minute to ask, “Hey, is this true? How come no other news website is reporting it?”

Don’t worry — taking too many selfies isn’t a mental disorder.

Selfies are photographs a person takes of oneself, usually with one’s mobile phone. They’ve become all the rage since the advent of smartphones which often have a camera facing the user. This makes taking a self-portrait in-the-moment easy to do.

The fake news article was published to a parody news website ala “The Onion” based in the Philippines called the Adobo Chronicles at the end of March 2014. It began:

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has officially confirmed what many people thought all along: taking ‘selfies’ is a mental disorder.

The APA made this classification during its annual board of directors meeting in Chicago. The disorder is called selfitis, and is defined as the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of one’s self and post them on social media as a way to make up for the lack of self-esteem and to fill a gap in intimacy.

Thousands of people read the article, didn’t bother to understand they were reading a parody site, and then tweeted (or retweeted) and posted the link to their Facebook page. The social media mania effect then ensued.

Very few of those people ever got the update or news that the article — and its claim about selfies — was fake.

As regular readers of our site know, the American Psychiatric Association only updates its list of official diagnoses — in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) — once every decade or two. It’s a lengthy process and certainly isn’t something decided at a “board of directors meeting.”

Will Selfitis Be a Future Disorder?
All of which begs the question — is there any research into this phenomenon? Could taking too many photographs of oneself actually be a sign of some mental disorder?

The good news is, not any time soon. PsycINFO, the psychology research database, returned zero results for the term “selfie,” meaning not a single research study has been published yet on this phenomenon. ScienceDirect returned 10 results on the term, most of which having to do with space cameras (go figure). PubMed returned a single result, with nothing to do with selfies. Related phrases also turned up nada.1

Since the DSM is only updated upon evidence of a large and confirmatory research base, it’s highly unlikely that we will see a disorder about selfies or called selfitis in the next few decades.

Is there any harm in taking too many photographs of oneself? For most people, probably not. If, however, it’s feeding into one’s pre-existing narcissism or narcissistic tendencies, then yes, it may be only reinforcing those kinds of negative traits.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archive...ot-a-disorder/

[ProfPacker]

It was a joke but the APA did go off the deep end by creating the DSM 5

[Kobi]

Proponents of a surgical tool used for a common uterine procedure will argue at a hearing next month that the device's benefits—facilitating a less-invasive operation—make it too important to take it off the market.

But opponents say the device's cancer-spreading risks make it too dangerous, especially for an elective procedure for which there are clear alternatives.

The debate about the tool will come to a head at the Washington-area hearing, where a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will weigh whether to ban the device—a drastic move the agency has made only once before.

In April, the FDA discouraged gynecologists from using the tool, called a power morcellator, estimating that 1 in 350 women undergoing the procedure have a hidden cancer that can be spread by the instrument.

Morcellators are used in an estimated 50,000 minimally invasive hysterectomies a year in the U.S. to remove often-painful growths called fibroids. The tools slice up the tissue so it can be extracted through tiny incisions.

"There is a real person attached to that number, that 1 in 350 number, and we don't want other women to meet the same fate," said Margaret Jacobson, a doctor and hospice director in Bellingham, Wash., who plans to argue for a ban at the FDA meeting.

Her sister, lawyer Elizabeth Jacobson, died in January 2013 at age 55 after a morcellator was used during her hysterectomy, records show. She had been diagnosed with fibroids but turned out to have cancer.

Others are calling for a more nuanced approach, highlighting the balancing act the FDA faces.

Gynecology groups plan to argue that with more stringent patient selection by doctors, the instrument remains a valuable tool. For instance, women under 35 have an extremely low chance of having uterine sarcoma masquerading as a fibroid, said Hal Lawrence, executive vice president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which puts the overall risk of hidden sarcoma at 1 in 500 women undergoing surgery to remove fibroids.

"It's critical that we not severely restrict treatment options for women who would benefit from minimally invasive gynecology surgery while minimizing the risk for the small number of women who may have an occult or hidden cancer," he said.

Banning an approved medical device involves a protracted regulatory process and is considered a radical move, said lawyers for device makers. The FDA has done it only once, for artificial hair implants.

Nearly all recalls are voluntarily done by manufacturers, though often in response to behind-the-scenes pressure from the agency.

The FDA cleared power morcellators for sale in the 1990s through an expedited process that allows devices similar to ones already on the market to be approved without clinical trials to show safety and effectiveness.

In addition to removing morcellators from the market, as some want, the FDA could take other steps. It said it also will consider reclassifying morcellators as high risk instead of moderate risk, a rare move that would require makers of existing devices to conduct trials to keep their products on the market.

"It could easily just kill the device," said Jeffrey K. Shapiro, a director at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara PC, a Washington, D.C., law firm that represents device manufacturers. Some of these companies wouldn't find it economically worthwhile to do trials, he said.

Johnson & Johnson, JNJ -0.51% by far the largest U.S. manufacturer of power morcellators, halted sales of the device globally in April and says it is awaiting further guidance from the FDA.

The FDA's Obstetrics and Gynecology Devices Panel, which is scheduled to hold the hearing July 10-11, also will explore whether containment bags—used in the body to prevent the spread of harmful tissue—would reduce the risk of spreading cancer and whether to require enhanced warning labels on morcellators.

The FDA isn't obligated to follow the advice of the panel but gives heavy weight to its guidance. "The FDA's primary concern as it considers the continued use of these devices is the safety and well-being of patients," said agency spokeswoman Jennifer Rodriguez.

Underscoring the debate are questions about whether the device is necessary.

Morcellators are most often used in a procedure that spares the cervix, a technique that has been touted as offering sexual and urinary-function benefits. Although that theory has been largely dismissed, the technique is still easier for most physicians to perform than other minimally invasive approaches.

Doctors say that removing the cervix so the uterus can be brought through the vagina—which the main gynecology group considers the preferred method—is particularly challenging.

There are alternatives for fibroid removal, including traditional open surgery—still the most common type of hysterectomy—and other less-invasive techniques, including vaginal surgery and the mini-laparotomy, in which the tissue typically is removed through a small incision above the pubic bone. There also are nonsurgical options.

Some in the gynecological field worry that without morcellators, doctors who lack experience with other less-invasive techniques will turn to open abdominal surgeries, which are linked to bigger scars, longer recoveries and more complications, said Ray Wertheim, director of minimally invasive gynecology at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax, Va.

Dr. Wertheim, who was on a task force to write morcellator guidelines for his specialty's medical society, said the solution is more training for gynecologists. "That's the fine line we're walking here," said Dr. Wertheim, who doesn't use a morcellator. He supports its use only in a containment bag and said he wasn't speaking on behalf of the society.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/showd...myyahoo_module

[*Anya*]

Experts: U.S. health care system well-prepared for Ebola
By Jacque Wilson, CNN
updated 10:34 PM EDT, Thu July 31, 2014

NEW: American aid workers are being evacuated from Liberia

NEW: At least one victim will be brought to Emory University near the CDC

American health care system well-prepared for Ebola patients, experts say

(CNN) -- It's not the type of plane either Kent Brantly or Nancy Writebol likely planned to take home.

But when health officials evacuate the two American aid workers infected with Ebola in west Africa, it will be the plane they take.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has outfitted a Gulfstream jet with an isolation pod designed and built by the U.S. Defense Department, the CDC and a private company. The pod, officially called an Aeromedical Biological Containment System, is a portable, tentlike device that ensures the flight crew and others on the flight remain safe from an infectious disease.

Tracking Ebola patient's journey to U.S.

A U.S.-contracted medical charter flight left Cartersville, Georgia, Thursday afternoon, to evacuate the Americans, a source familiar with the travel plans told CNN. At least one of them will be brought to Emory University near the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, hospital officials told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

The CDC raised its travel warning for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone from Level 2 to Level 3 on Thursday, warning against any nonessential travel to the region. Since 2003, the agency has only issued Level 3 alerts on two occasions: during the outbreak of SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, in 2003, and in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Could Ebola make its way to the U.S.?

The CDC is sending 50 additional personnel to the three countries, CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said. They will be working to speed up laboratory testing, trace potentially infected people and strengthen the local health care systems.

Ebola is believed to have killed 729 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria between March 1 and July 27, according to the World Health Organization. Stopping this particular epidemic could take months. It's like fighting a forest fire, Frieden says -- if you leave even one burning ember, the epidemic can start again.

"It's not going to be quick. It's not going to be easy. But we know what to do."
Evacuating Brantly and Writebol was ultimately up to the aid organizations they work for, Frieden said. Moving them could do more harm than the good that might come with better treatment options in a developed country.

"I can tell you that airplanes are tough environments," said Dr. Lee Norman, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Hospital. Norman was a flight surgeon for 16 years in the Air Force. "You want to have the shortest trip possible for the best quality medical care. That is as available in Europe as it is in the U.S. It's a matter of how much flight they can handle."

The American health care system is well-prepared for Ebola patients, experts say.

"I think any major medical center can take care of any Ebola patient," said Dr. William Schaffner, an expert on infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University's School of Medicine. "We have isolation rooms we use all the time."

These isolation rooms are used for patients suspected to have tuberculosis, SARS, Middle East respiratory syndrome or another infectious disease. Schaffner said not much would be different for an Ebola patient, though more stringent precautions might be taken to ensure health care workers are following all protocols. "But all that is minor compared to the adjustments you have to make during influenza (season), for example," he said.

The CDC has quarantine stations around the country staffed 24/7. And most hospital staffs have been alerted and are on the lookout for Ebola symptoms, said Dr. Eric Legome, chief of emergency medicine at Kings County Hospital in New York. Symptoms include fever, headache, diarrhea and vomiting. Some patients have trouble breathing.

Doctors are asking patients with these symptoms if they have traveled recently to the three countries primarily affected by the Ebola outbreak: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. They're also asking if patients have been in contact with anyone else who has traveled to the region lately.

Legome said hospitals have a low threshold to isolate patients, meaning anyone who is even remotely suspected of being infected will immediately be put in an isolated ICU room so health officials can run tests.

"They would most likely be flying in civilian aircraft and seek care in civilian hospitals, urgent care clinics, physicians' offices and emergency departments," said Norman. "That is exactly why this awareness is important for all caregivers."

Ebola is not airborne, he said. It cannot be transmitted via coughs or sneezes. If an infected person is exhibiting symptoms, he or she can transmit the disease via bodily fluids such as blood, breast milk or semen. The virus does not die with a patient -- so deceased bodies can transmit the disease.

There is no specific treatment for Ebola. Doctors can only administer what they call "supportive therapy," which means supporting the patient's own immune system as it tries to battle the infection. This usually involves intravenous fluids to prevent dehydration and shock, said Christopher Mores, associate director of Louisiana State University's Center for Experimental Infectious Diseases. This therapy for Ebola patients could also include blood or platelet transfusions and oxygen therapy.

Ebola can last two to three weeks, Mores said, so patients would remain in isolation until their symptoms subside and tests come back negative for the virus.
CNN's Debra Goldschmidt contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/health...rticle_sidebar

Amid fears that air travelers could spread Ebola to other countries, many are asking questions about the disease and how it is transmitted. Here's what you need to know about Ebola. The information comes from WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What is Ebola?

Ebola virus disease, sometimes known as EVD, is a highly infectious, usually fatal virus that leads to flu-like symptoms and severe internal bleeding.

Just how deadly is Ebola?

The survival rate is very low. Somewhere between 60 percent and 90 percent of the people who develop Ebola will die.

What are the symptoms of Ebola?

Ebola is often characterized by the sudden onset of flu-like symptoms including fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. These are followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-q-...-deadly-virus/

[*Anya*]

LEADING ANTI-MARIJUANA ACADEMICS ARE PAID BY PAINKILLER DRUG COMPANIES
By Lee Fang Aug 27 2014

As Americans continue to embrace pot—as medicine and for recreational use—opponents are turning to a set of academic researchers to claim that policymakers should avoid relaxing restrictions around marijuana. It's too dangerous, risky, and untested, they say. Just as drug company-funded research has become incredibly controversial in recent years, forcing major medical schools and journals to institute strict disclosure requirements, could there be a conflict of interest issue in the pot debate?

VICE has found that many of the researchers who have advocated against legalizing pot have also been on the payroll of leading pharmaceutical firms with products that could be easily replaced by using marijuana. When these individuals have been quoted in the media, their drug-industry ties have not been revealed.

Take, for example, Dr. Herbert Kleber of Columbia University. Kleber has impeccable academic credentials, and has been quoted in the press and in academic publications warning against the use of marijuana, which he stresses may cause wide-ranging addiction and public health issues. But when he's writing anti-pot opinion pieces for CBS News, or being quoted by NPR and CNBC, what's left unsaid is that Kleber has served as a paid consultant to leading prescription drug companies, including Purdue Pharma (the maker of OxyContin), Reckitt Benckiser (the producer of a painkiller called Nurofen), and Alkermes (the producer of a powerful new opioid called Zohydro).

Kleber, who did not respond to a request for comment, maintains important influence over the pot debate. For instance, his writing has been cited by the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police in its opposition to marijuana legalization, and has been published by the American Psychiatric Association in the organization's statement warning against marijuana for medicinal uses.

Could Kleber's long-term financial relationship with drug firms be viewed as a conflict of interest? Studies have found that pot can be used for pain relief as a substitute for major prescription painkillers. The opioid painkiller industry is a multibillion business that has faced rising criticism from experts because painkillers now cause about 16,000 deaths a year, more than heroin and cocaine combined. Researchers view marijuana as a a safe alternative to opioid products like OxyContin, and there are no known overdose deaths from pot.

Other leading academic opponents of pot have ties to the painkiller industry. Dr. A. Eden Evins, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is a frequent critic of efforts to legalize marijuana. She is on the board of an anti-marijuana advocacy group, Project SAM, and has been quoted by leading media outlets criticizing the wave of new pot-related reforms. "When people can go to a ‘clinic’ or ‘cafe’ and buy pot, that creates the perception that it’s safe,” she told the Times last year.

Notably, when Evins participated in a commentary on marijuana legalization for the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, the publication found that her financial relationships required a disclosure statement, which noted that as of November 2012, she was a "consultant for Pfizer and DLA Piper and has received grant/research support from Envivo, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer." Pfizer has moved aggressively into the $7.3 billion painkiller market. In 2011, the company acquired King Pharmaceuticals (the makers of several opioid products) and is currently working to introduce Remoxy, an OxyContin competitor.

Dr. Mark L. Kraus, who runs a private practice and is a board member to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, submitted testimony in 2012 in opposition to a medical marijuana law in Connecticut. According to financial disclosures, Kraus served on the scientific advisory panel for painkiller companies such as Pfizer and Reckitt Benckiser in the year prior to his activism against the medical pot bill. Neither Kraus or Evins responded to a request for comment.

These academic revelations add fodder to the argument that drug firms maintain quiet ties to the marijuana prohibition lobby. In July, I reported for the Nation that many of the largest anti-pot advocacy groups, including the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions for America, which has organized opposition to reform through its network of activists and through handing out advocacy material (sample op-eds against medical pot along with Reefer Madness-style videos, for example), has relied on significant funding from painkiller companies, including Purdue Pharma and Alkermes. Pharmaceutical-funded anti-drug groups like the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and CADCA use their budget to obsess over weed while paying lip-service to the much bigger drug problem in America of over-prescribed opioids.

As ProPublica reported, painkiller-funded researchers helped fuel America's deadly addiction to opioids such as OxyContin and Vicodin. These academics, with quiet funding from major pain pill firms, encouraged doctors to over-prescribe these drugs for a range of pain relief issues, leading to where we stand today as the world's biggest consumer of painkillers and the overdose capital of the planet. What does it say about medical academia today that many of that painkiller-funded researchers are now standing in the way of a safer alternative: smoking a joint.

http://www.vice.com/read/leading-ant...drug-companies

[Kobi]

Sperm cells have been created from a female human embryo in a remarkable breakthrough that suggests it may be possible for lesbian couples to have their own biological children.

British scientists who had already coaxed male bone marrow cells to develop into primitive sperm cells have now repeated the feat with female embryonic stem cells.

The University of Newcastle team that has achieved the feat is now applying for permission to turn the bone marrow of a woman into sperm which, if successful, would make the method more practical than with embryonic cells.

It raises the possibility of lesbian couples one day having children who share both their genes as sperm created from the bone marrow of one woman could be used to fertilise an egg from her partner.

Men and women differ because of what are called sex chromosomes. Both have an X chromosome. But only men possess a Y chromosome that carries several genes thought to be essential to make sperm, so there has been scepticism that female stem cells could ever be used to make sperm.

In April last year, Prof Karim Nayernia, Professor of Stem Cell Biology at Newcastle University, made headlines by taking stem cells from adult men and making them develop into primitive sperm.

He has now managed to repeat the feat of creating the primitive sperm cells with female embryonic stem cells in unpublished work.

The next step is to make these primitive sperm undergo meiosis, so they have the right amount of genetic material for fertilisation.

Prof Nayernia showed the potential of the method in 2006, when he used sperm derived from male embryonic stem cells to fertilise mice to produce seven pups, six of which lived to adulthood, though the survivors did suffer problems.

He is now optimistic about the prospect of lab-grown sperm from women.

“I think, in principle, it will be scientifically possible,” Prof Nayernia told New Scientist.

He said that he has applied for ethical approval from the university to use bone marrow stem cells from women to start experiments to derive female sperm.

“We are now writing the application form,” he said, adding that experiments will begin in Newcastle if and when they get approval.

However, Dr Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell and sex determination expert at the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, doubts it will work: “The presence of two X chromosomes is incompatible with this. Moreover they need genes from the Y chromosome to go through meiosis. So they are at least double-damned.”

In Brazil, a team led by Dr Irina Kerkis of the Butantan Institute in Saõ Paulo claims to have made both sperm and eggs from cultures of male mouse embryonic stem cells in the journal Cloning and Stem Cells.

The researchers have not yet shown that their male eggs can be fertilised to produce viable offspring, but they are thinking about possibilities for same-sex human reproduction.

If all these experiments pan out, then the stage would also be set for a gay man to donate skin cells that could be used to make eggs, which could then be fertilised by his partner’s sperm and placed into the uterus of a surrogate mother.

“I think it is possible,” says Kerkis, “but I don’t know how people will look at this ethically.”

The UK parliament is now debating changes to the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, and the government is under pressure to include an amendment that would allow the future use of eggs and sperm grown in the lab from stem cells.

However, a clause added to this amendment would restrict this to sperm from genetic males and eggs from genetic females.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/s...le-embryo.html

-------------------------------

This fascinates me for 2 reasons.

First, MissTick and I had a conversation a couple of years ago about how the war on the reproductive rights of women and women in general was the result of the development (unbeknownst to us) of synthetic sperm.

Secondly, the feminist community is struggling with surrogacy as detrimental to women as it reduces women to sperm receptacles and baby making machines ala A Handmaid's Tale.

Funny how stuff fits together sometimes.

[*Anya*]

Health editor, BBC News website

Going up several skirt sizes in midlife could be a warning sign of increased cancer risk, research suggests.

Women who went up a skirt size every decade after their mid-20s had a 33% greater risk of breast cancer after the menopause, say researchers at University College London.

Watching your skirt size from your mid-20s onwards could be a simple way to track weight gain, they told BMJ Open.

Obesity is a known risk factor for cancer, particularly midriff fat.

Women are more likely to remember their skirt size when they were younger than their BMI”

Simon Vincent

Breakthrough Breast Cancer
Prof Usha Menon of the Department of Women's Cancer, who led the study, told BBC News: "If skirt size could be confirmed by others as a good predictor of breast cancer risk in older women, this would be a very simple and easy way to monitor weight gain."

Lifestyle factors
The study tracked more than 90,000 women in their 50s and 60s living in England.

During the three-year follow-up period, 1,090 women developed breast cancer.

The researchers found that a unit increase in UK skirt size every 10 years (for example from 12 to 14) between 25 and post-menopausal age was linked to a 33% increased risk of breast cancer.

Going up two skirt sizes in the same period was associated with a 77% greater risk, they report.

Commenting on the research, Simon Vincent of Breakthrough Breast Cancer said: "We know that 40% of breast cancers could be prevented by changes to lifestyle such as being regularly active and maintaining a healthy weight.

"This study highlights an easy way to monitor your weight gain over time. Women are more likely to remember their skirt size when they were younger than their BMI."

Limitations
The researchers said the study had some limitations - it relied on women being able to accurately recall their skirt size in their 20s.

But if the findings are confirmed, it could give women a simple and easy-to-understand message about the risks of obesity.

Tom Stansfeld of Cancer Research UK said the study could be unreliable as dress sizes had changed over the years and it relied on a woman being able to remember her skirt size several decades earlier.

"Evidence tells us the most important things you can do to reduce breast cancer risk, especially after the menopause, is to keep a healthy weight, be physically active as often as you can, and cut down on alcohol," he said.

"Keeping a healthy weight is important to help reduce breast cancer risk after the menopause, and looking at skirt sizes to help women understand this is interesting, but knowing if you're overweight is more important."

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29351249

[*Anya*]

First womb-transplant baby born

Posted October 4, 2014

By James Gallagher
Health editor, BBC News

A woman in Sweden has given birth to a baby boy using a transplanted womb, in a medical first, doctors report.

The 36-year-old mother, who was born without a uterus, received a donated womb from a friend in her 60s.

The British medical journal The Lancet says the baby was born prematurely in September weighing 1.8kg (3.9lb). The father said his son was "amazing".

Cancer treatment and birth defects are the main reasons women can be left without a functioning womb.

If they want a child of their own, their only option is surrogacy.

Medical marvel

The identity of the couple in Sweden has not been released, but it is known the mother still had functioning ovaries.

He's no different from any other child, but he will have a good story to tell.”

The boy's father

The couple went through IVF to produce 11 embryos, which were frozen. Doctors at the University of Gothenburg then performed the womb transplant.

The donor was a 61-year-old family friend who had gone through menopause seven years earlier.

Drugs to suppress the immune system were needed to prevent the womb being rejected.

A year after the transplant, doctors decided they were ready to implant one of the frozen embryos and a pregnancy ensued.

The baby was born prematurely, almost 32 weeks into the pregnancy, after the mother developed pre-eclampsia and the baby's heart rate became abnormal.

Both baby and mum are now said to be doing well.

In an anonymous interview with the AP news agency, the father said: "It was a pretty tough journey over the years, but we now have the most amazing baby.

"He's no different from any other child, but he will have a good story to tell.

Two other medical teams have attempted womb transplants before.

In one case, the organ became diseased and had to be removed after three months. Another case resulted in miscarriages.

Prof Mats Brannstrom, who led the transplant team, described the birth in Sweden as a joyous moment.

"That was a fantastic happiness for me and the whole team, but it was an unreal sensation also because we really could not believe we had reached this moment.

"Our success is based on more than 10 years of intensive animal research and surgical training by our team and opens up the possibility of treating many young females worldwide that suffer from uterine infertility."

Liza Johannesson, a gynaecological surgeon in the team, said: "It gives hope to those women and men that thought they would never have a child, that thought they were out of hope."

However, there are still doubts about the safety and effectiveness of the invasive procedure.

Dr Brannstrom and his team are working with another eight couples with a similar need. The results of those pregnancy attempts will give a better picture of whether this technique can be used more widely.

Dr Allan Pacey, the chairman of the British Fertility Society, told the BBC News website: "I think it is brilliant and revolutionary and opens the door to many infertile women.

"The scale of it feels a bit like IVF. It feels like a step change. The question is can it be done repeatedly, reliably and safely."

The couple, fresh from celebrating the birth of their child, will soon have to decide if they want a second.

The drugs used to prevent the womb being rejected would be damaging in the long term - so the couple will either try again or have the womb removed.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29485996

[SleepyButch]

Originally Posted by *Anya*

First womb-transplant baby born

Posted October 4, 2014

By James Gallagher
Health editor, BBC News

A woman in Sweden has given birth to a baby boy using a transplanted womb, in a medical first, doctors report.

The 36-year-old mother, who was born without a uterus, received a donated womb from a friend in her 60s.

The British medical journal The Lancet says the baby was born prematurely in September weighing 1.8kg (3.9lb). The father said his son was "amazing".

Cancer treatment and birth defects are the main reasons women can be left without a functioning womb.

If they want a child of their own, their only option is surrogacy.

Medical marvel

The identity of the couple in Sweden has not been released, but it is known the mother still had functioning ovaries.

He's no different from any other child, but he will have a good story to tell.”

The boy's father

The couple went through IVF to produce 11 embryos, which were frozen. Doctors at the University of Gothenburg then performed the womb transplant.

The donor was a 61-year-old family friend who had gone through menopause seven years earlier.

Drugs to suppress the immune system were needed to prevent the womb being rejected.

A year after the transplant, doctors decided they were ready to implant one of the frozen embryos and a pregnancy ensued.

The baby was born prematurely, almost 32 weeks into the pregnancy, after the mother developed pre-eclampsia and the baby's heart rate became abnormal.

Both baby and mum are now said to be doing well.

In an anonymous interview with the AP news agency, the father said: "It was a pretty tough journey over the years, but we now have the most amazing baby.

"He's no different from any other child, but he will have a good story to tell.

Two other medical teams have attempted womb transplants before.

In one case, the organ became diseased and had to be removed after three months. Another case resulted in miscarriages.

Prof Mats Brannstrom, who led the transplant team, described the birth in Sweden as a joyous moment.

"That was a fantastic happiness for me and the whole team, but it was an unreal sensation also because we really could not believe we had reached this moment.

"Our success is based on more than 10 years of intensive animal research and surgical training by our team and opens up the possibility of treating many young females worldwide that suffer from uterine infertility."

Liza Johannesson, a gynaecological surgeon in the team, said: "It gives hope to those women and men that thought they would never have a child, that thought they were out of hope."

However, there are still doubts about the safety and effectiveness of the invasive procedure.

Dr Brannstrom and his team are working with another eight couples with a similar need. The results of those pregnancy attempts will give a better picture of whether this technique can be used more widely.

Dr Allan Pacey, the chairman of the British Fertility Society, told the BBC News website: "I think it is brilliant and revolutionary and opens the door to many infertile women.

"The scale of it feels a bit like IVF. It feels like a step change. The question is can it be done repeatedly, reliably and safely."

The couple, fresh from celebrating the birth of their child, will soon have to decide if they want a second.

The drugs used to prevent the womb being rejected would be damaging in the long term - so the couple will either try again or have the womb removed.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29485996

I saw this yesterday and was just amazed that they had even tried it. I guess we can transplant many different types of organs so why not the uterus. The donor definitely didn't need it.

What surprises me is that the donor had gone through menopause already and with that, the uterus changes. I wonder what they did to make it more viable to host the embryo. I also wonder if the suppression drugs will have any long term affect on the little one. I hope not and that he continues to grow as healthy as he is now.

Again, I am just amazed. Thanks for posting!

[*Anya*]

20 October 2014 Last updated at 21:21 ET

Scientists say they have identified the underlying reason why some people are prone to the winter blues, or seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

People with SAD have an unhelpful way of controlling the "happy" brain signalling compound serotonin during winter months, brain scans reveal.

As the nights draw in, production of a transporter protein ramps up in SAD, lowering available serotonin.

The work will be presented this week at a neuropsychopharmacology conference.

"We don't yet know enough about how serotonin levels can be affected by light levels so this is quite an interesting, albeit small, study. We would welcome more research”

The University of Copenhagen researchers who carried out the trial say their findings confirm what others have suspected - although they only studied 11 people with SAD and 23 healthy volunteers for comparison.

Using positron emission tomography (PET) brain scans, they were able to show significant summer-to-winter differences in the levels of the serotonin transporter (SERT) protein in SAD patients.

The SAD volunteers had higher levels of SERT in the winter months, corresponding to a greater removal of serotonin in winter, while the healthy volunteers did not.

Winter depression
Lead researcher, Dr Brenda Mc Mahon, said: "We believe that we have found the dial the brain turns when it has to adjust serotonin to the changing seasons.

"The serotonin transporter (SERT) carries serotonin back into the nerve cells where it is not active - so the higher the SERT activity, the lower the activity of serotonin.

"Sunlight keeps this setting naturally low, but when the nights grow longer during the autumn, the SERT levels increase, resulting in diminishing active serotonin levels.

"Many individuals are not really affected by SAD, and we have found that these people don't have this increase in SERT activity, so their active serotonin levels remain high throughout the winter."

Prof Siegfried Kasper, of the European College of Neuropsychophar­macology, which this year is holding its annual congress in Berlin, said: "SERT fluctuations associated with SAD have been seen in previous studies, but this is the first study to follow patients through summer and winter comparisons.

"It seems to offer confirmation that SERT is associated with SAD."

Sam Challis, information manager at mental health charity Mind, said: "We don't yet know enough about how serotonin levels can be affected by light levels so this is quite an interesting, albeit small, study. We would welcome more research."

She said there was a range of treatments available for SAD, such as light therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy.

"We know that eating a balanced diet, cutting down on caffeine and getting some exercise can help, as can spending as much time as possible outdoors because - even when it's overcast - light will be higher than indoors."

SAD affects about two million people in the UK, and more than 12 million people across northern Europe.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29691479

[Kobi]

(Reuters) - Boston Scientific Corp on Monday was set to face its first federal trials in two courts over claims from women who say they were injured by the company’s transvaginal mesh devices.

One, in Charleston, West Virginia, involves allegations from four women over the company's Obtryx device, used to treat stress urinary incontinence. The other, in Miami, concerns women implanted with the Pinnacle, which treats pelvic organ prolapse.

Boston Scientific has been hit with more than 23,000 suits in U.S. state and federal courts over the devices in the six years since concerns were first publicly raised over the devices. Federal cases against it and six other companies have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin in the Southern District of West Virginia.

Since then, transvaginal mesh has become one of the most sued-over medical devices in U.S. history. Goodwin has said he'll resort to creative tactics, like grouping similar plaintiffs for trial, to keep the cases from dragging on for decades, as litigation for other mass torts like asbestos and tobacco did.

It won't be easy. Together, the three biggest defendants - Boston Scientific, Johnson & Johnson's Ethicon Inc unit and C.R. Bard Inc - face more than 72,000 claims in federal and state courts, according to the companies' regulatory filings.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April said it was considering requiring the makers of products used to treat pelvic organ prolapse to submit additional safety data to remain on the market.

Plaintiffs say the devices were poorly designed, made from substandard material and can lead to injuries ranging from infection and pain to bleeding and nerve damage.

Ethicon and Boston Scientific have both denied liability and said in statements to Reuters that they believe mesh is an important treatment option. C.R. Bard declined to comment.

The nine cases that have gone to trial so far, against Boston Scientific, Ethicon and C.R. Bard, have produced mixed results, with defendants winning some and plaintiffs others. One company, Endo International’s American Medical Systems, announced recently that it would set aside $1.6 billion to settle “substantially all” mesh claims.

The three trials faced by Boston Scientific in state courts have also led to varying outcomes. Two cases in Massachusetts resulted in wins for the company, while a third in Texas ended with a $73 million verdict for the plaintiff, which was later reduced to $34 million under a state law capping damages.

The group trials starting Monday are part of Goodwin's plan to speed up the cases' progress. He has also ordered Boston Scientific and C.R. Bard to each prepare hundreds of cases for trial in courts across the United States starting as early as next year.

While Goodwin originally scheduled a series of single-plaintiff bellwether, or test, trials for the federal litigation, he scrapped those plans earlier this year and instead consolidated claims from multiple women into a single trial. Doing so, he said, would help save courts' time and resources, and “may facilitate settlement” by giving Boston Scientific and plaintiffs a clearer picture of the strengths and weaknesses of their cases.

While not unprecedented, it is unusual for personal-injury cases involving medical devices to proceed with more than one plaintiff at a time, given that individuals may have different medical histories and product experiences.

Boston Scientific fought vigorously against the consolidated trial plan, saying in court filings that each woman’s issues would be obscured by the group setting and prejudice jurors against the company.

A company spokeswoman, Kelly Leadem, declined to comment specifically on the litigation but said in a statement that Boston Scientific is committed to patient safety.

Several plaintiffs’ lawyers for the women headed to trial Monday did not return requests for comment.

Fidelma Fitzpatrick, an attorney at Motley Rice who has represented plaintiffs in other mesh trials against Boston Scientific and Ethicon, said the outcome from the group trials could help Boston Scientific and plaintiffs move closer to a resolution.

“I think that Goodwin has been working hard to try to find an end game for this litigation,” Fitzpatrick said. “The reality is, one case at a time when you’re trying four or five cases a year against a manufacturer isn’t enough to truly put pressure on the defendants."

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/boston-sci...--finance.html

[SleepyButch]

A third of Fortune 500 companies now cover transgender health care

A new report highlights dramatic changes in how corporations treat trans employees.

By Liz Goodwin


The number of Fortune 500 companies willing pay for sex reassignment surgeries and other transgender-related healthcare has gone from zero in 2002 to 169 this year, according to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign.


The report, which ranks corporations on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans employees, also found that more than half of corporations with more than 500 employees that participated in the survey now cover the procedures. That’s 418 firms.

Some of the biggest names in corporate America are among those who have signed up to cover the procedures, at up to $75,000 per employee. Facebook Inc., Visa, Starbucks Corp., CVS Health Corp. and Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. are just some of the firms that decided this year to begin covering the procedures for their workers for the first time.

“The jump in terms of employers adopting transgender benefits has been the most dramatic of any single aspect of the Corporate Equality Index in its entire history,” said Deena Fidas, the director of the Human Rights Campaign’s Workplace Equality Program, which has been producing the report for more than a decade.

Ratings in the Corporate Equality Index are derived from a look at five major areas, including: recruiting efforts, whether firms have explicit gender identity and sexual orientation anti-discrimination protections, and if they have extended health care and other benefits to same-sex partners.

While the vast majority of Fortune 500 companies now have nondiscrimination policies that explicitly protect employees from being fired for their gender identity or orientation, companies have moved much more slowly when it comes to covering transgender health care

“Across a lot of the businesses, very well-meaning people were quite anxious about these benefits,” Fidas said. “They wondered if there’d be murmurings among the workforce.”

It took many “uphill conversations” to convince some big employers that transition-related health care is not elective or cosmetic for transgender people, Fidas said.

Such health care can include: sex reassignment surgery, breast augmentation or mastectomy, hormone therapy, short-term leave and counseling.

The vast majority of health insurance plans explicitly ban the coverage of any transition-related care, grouping those procedures with elective cosmetic surgery.

This has slowly begun to change as mainstream medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, have announced new positions in recent years stating that sex reassignment surgery is not elective for some transgender people. (The American Medical Association said in 2008 that “gender dysphoria” is a “serious medical condition” that can result in “suicidality and death” without proper treatment.)

“Transition-related care is absolutely essential to trans people who are seeking to be themselves,” said Lisa Mottet, deputy executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “In many cases, this care is actually life-saving.”

Not every transgender person wants surgery, but having it as an option is crucial, she said.

Some state officials are also beginning to move in that direction. Eight states have banned insurance companies from explicitly excluding surgeries for transgender people, and a handful of states even offer coverage for the procedures through Medicaid.

The Human Rights Campaign says that businesses that have decided to provide the care have not had to increase insurance premiums. The cost has been “so small it’s not quantifiable,” Fidas said. That might be in part because so few people in the country are transgender. The Williams Institute at UCLA estimates the transgender population at one third of one percent.

“There’s not one number that will tell you how many people are transgender in corporate America,” Fidas said. “We’re on the brink of seeing more people being able to be visible in their jobs and to be able to be more open about the fact that they’re transgender.”

Nancy Kelly, the director of compensation and benefits at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said larger companies can no longer remain competitive if they are not offering transgender benefits. The bank decided this year to begin to cover transition-related health care services as of Jan 1. Kelly said she is not sure if any of the bank’s 1,200 employees are transgender or will want to access the new benefits when they become available. The Federal Reserve banks of Boston, Cleveland and Richmond also decided to offer the benefits this year.

“It was not a particular employee request, it was more about diversity and inclusion and being a competitive employer,” Kelly said.

A CVS spokeswoman said the company changed its health coverage to include sex reassignment surgery to "provide all colleagues with meaningful choices regarding their health care."


http://news.yahoo.com/a-third-of-for...142740785.html

[*Anya*]

Lisa Kaplan Gordon

A common antimicrobial agent called triclosan causes liver fibrosis and cancer in laboratory mice through mechanisms also relevant to humans, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found

Triclosan's broad use in consumer goods -- including liquid hand soaps, toothpastes, shampoos, cosmetics, plastics, yoga mats, cutting boards and ice cream scoops -- presents "a very real risk of liver toxicity for people, as it does in mice," said Robert H. Tukey, a UC-San Diego professor and co-author of the study, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Triclosan, a synthetic, broad-spectrum antibacterial chemical, is coming under fire because of its links to endocrine disruption that could cause infertility, impaired muscle function and now increased cancer risks.

It's All Around

The UC-San Diego study showed that mice exposed to triclosan for six months (roughly equivalent to 18 human years) had more and larger chemical-induced liver tumors than mice not exposed to the antimicrobial. Researchers believe triclosan may interfere with the protein responsible for detoxifying foreign chemicals in the body, thereby causing liver cells to proliferate and, over time, become cancerous tumors.

Studies have found traces of triclosan in 97 percent of breast milk samples from lactating women and in the urine of nearly 75 percent of people tested, according to a statement by UC San Diego Health System. Triclosan is also one of the seven most frequently detected compounds in streams across the United States, the statement says.

"We could reduce most human and environmental exposures by eliminating uses of triclosan that are high-volume, but of low-benefit, such as inclusion in liquid hand soaps," said Bruce D. Hammock, professor at University of California, Davis. "Yet we could also for now retain uses shown to have health value -- as in toothpaste, where the amount used is small."

Colgate-Palmolive (CL) recently came under fire because its Total toothpaste contains triclosan. A recent Care2 petition, asking Colgate to remove triclosan from its toothpaste, so far has received almost 68,000 signatures.

Triclosan is already under scrutiny by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. On its website, the FDA says, "Triclosan is not currently known to be hazardous to humans. But several scientific studies have come out since the last time FDA reviewed this ingredient that merit further review."

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/11/...ew-study-says/
__________________________________________________ ______________

National Biomonitoring Program

Triclosan

Triclosan is a chemical with antibacterial properties. For more than 30 years, it has been used in consumer products such as detergents, soaps, skin cleansers, deodorants, lotions, creams, toothpastes, and dishwashing liquids. Triclosan can be added to other materials, such as textiles, to make them resistant to bacterial growth.

How People Are Exposed to Triclosan
People may be exposed to triclosan when they use consumer products containing triclosan. When using these products, a person can absorb small amounts of triclosan through the skin or the mouth.

How Triclosan Affects People's Health
The human health effects from exposure to low environmental levels of triclosan are unknown. Skin products containing triclosan rarely have caused irritation. More research is needed to assess the human health effects of exposure to triclosan.

Levels of Triclosan in the U.S. Population
In the Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (Fourth Report), CDC scientists measured triclosan in the urine of 2,517 participants aged six years and older who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) during 2003–2004. By measuring triclosan in urine, scientists can estimate the amount of triclosan that has entered people's bodies.

Triclosan was detected in the urine of nearly 75% of the people tested.

Finding measurable amounts of triclosan in urine does not imply that the levels of triclosan cause an adverse health effect. Biomonitoring studies on levels of triclosan provide physicians and public health officials with reference values so that they can determine whether people have been exposed to higher levels of triclosan than are found in the general population. Biomonitoring data can also help health scientists plan and conduct research on exposure and health effects.

http://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/Tri...FactSheet.html

Additional Resources

Environmental Protection Agency Triclosan Facts

http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/fac...iclosan_fs.htm

[*Anya*]

Yale researchers reverse type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease in rats

By Ziba Kashef

February 26, 20

Yale researchers developed a controlled-release oral therapy that reversed type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease in rats, according to a study published on Feb. 26 by Science.

Existing therapies for type 2 diabetes, and the closely associated conditions of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), have had limited success at treating the root causes of these diseases.

Building on earlier research, the Yale team — led by Dr. Gerald I. Shulman, the George R. Cowgill Professor of Physiological Chemistry, and professor of medicine and cellular & molecular physiology at Yale School of Medicine — decided to investigate whether an agent that had originally been used for weight loss more than 70 years ago could be reformulated to safely treat NAFLD/NASH and type 2 diabetes in rodent models of these diseases.

Based on their earlier studies, the researchers determined that toxicity associated with the agent — mitochondrial protonophore 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) — was related to its peak plasma concentrations. They discovered that DNP’s efficacy in reducing liver fat and liver inflammation could be achieved with plasma concentrations that were more than a 100-fold less than the toxic levels.

“Besides reversing fatty liver disease in a rodent model of NALFD, a low-dose intragastric infusion of DNP that was 100-fold lower than toxic levels also significantly reduced blood glucose, triglyceride, and insulin concentrations in a rodent model of NAFLD and type 2 diabetes”, said Shulman, who is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

In the next phase of the study, Shulman and his team developed a new oral, controlled-release form of DNP, known as CRMP, which maintained the drug at concentrations that were more than a 100-fold lower than the toxic threshold. Administered once daily, CRMP delivered similar positive results, reversing fatty liver, insulin resistance, and hyperglycemia in rat models of NAFLD and type 2 diabetes, as well as liver inflammation and liver fibrosis in a rodent model of NASH, with no adverse effects.

“Given these promising results in animal models of NAFLD/NASH and type 2 diabetes we are pursuing additional preclinical safety studies to take this mitochondrial protonophore approach to the clinic” said Shulman.

Other Yale authors include Rachel J. Perry, Dongyan Zhang, Xian-Man Zhang, and James L. Boyer.

This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01 DK-40936, R24 DK-085638, U24 DK-059635, T32 DK-101019, P30 DK-45735, P30 DK-34989 and UL1 TR-000142) and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Citation: Science

http://news.yale.edu/2015/02/26/yale...r-disease-rats

[*Anya*]

HealthDay News -- A new study finds that treating moderate to severe depression with antidepressants may have an added bonus: reducing cardiovascular risks.

People who took antidepressants alone had a 53% lower risk of death, coronary artery disease, and stroke over three years than those who did not take antidepressants or statins, according to Heidi May, PhD, MSPH, a cardiovascular epidemiologist at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City. She and colleagues analyzed health data from 5,311 people in Utah with moderate to severe depression.

Taking a statin, either alone or with antidepressants, did not significantly reduce the risk, the researchers found. The level of depression appeared to be key, May said in an ACC news release. Although antidepressant therapy didn't seem to boost the heart health of people with little or no depression, it did have an effect on those with more serious depression.

The study couldn't prove that the use of antidepressants helped cause a lowering of cardiovascular risks. However, depression is a known risk factor for heart disease, May said.

Her team also did not examine how antidepressants might prevent heart disease. But May theorized that as depressive symptoms ease, people's behaviors might change in ways that help their hearts.

"For example, people who are having depressive symptoms may not be as inclined to exercise, practice good health habits, or comply with health advice," she said. "Using an antidepressant to reduce depressive symptoms might also help people better take care of their heart health."

The findings are scheduled to be presented March 15 at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), held from March 14 to 16 in San Diego.

http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/treat...rticle/402142/

[*Anya*]

The fight over Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood moved to Texas this week.

Three days after Gov. Greg Abbott announced his decision to end Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, state health department investigators showed up on Thursday at Planned Parenthood health centers in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Brownsville with orders to turn over thousands of pages of documents, including patients’ records and employees’ home addresses and telephone numbers.

Some, but not all, of the extensive records sought by the state related specifically to abortion.

For example, Planned Parenthood South Texas was told to produce five years of records — whether electronic, paper or ultrasound — concerning any patients billed to Medicaid who had an abortion in which any part of the fetus was removed or preserved for research use. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast was to turn over a complete copy of certain patients’ records, including doctors’ orders, nursing notes and lab tests, as well as the center’s appointment books, patient sign-in sheets and contracts.

“We’re concerned about the breadth and depth of what they’re asking for,” said Sarah Wheat, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas.


Rest of article found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/24/us...-abortion.html

[*Anya*]

Health | Thu Nov 12, 2015 4:40am ESTRelated: HEALTH
U.S. maternal mortality rate is twice that of Canada: U.N
GENEVA | BY TOM MILES

Women are twice as likely to die from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth in the United States than in Canada, a new global survey of maternal mortality published by the United Nations and the World Bank showed on Thursday.

The United States was also one of only 13 countries to have worse rates of maternal mortality in 2015 than in 1990 - a group that also includes North Korea, Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

The survey, led by the World Health Organization, aims to track progress against the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. It estimated there would be 303,000 maternal deaths globally this year, down from 532,000 in 1990.

The U.N. target is to get the global average number of maternal deaths below 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030, with no country averaging worse than 140.

The United States and other developed countries are already far ahead of the target, but the U.S. average has slipped from 12 deaths to 14 per 100,000 live births over the past 25 years, while Canada's is where it was in 1990, at seven.

Over the same period Belarus has cut its maternal death rate from 33 to four, making it one of the safest places to have a baby, just behind the world leaders - Iceland, Finland, Poland and Greece - where only three mothers die for every 100,000 births.

The world average is 216 deaths, ranging from 12 in rich countries to 546 in sub-Saharan Africa.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...zC0OG4OzBic.97

[*Anya*]

Antidepressants taken during pregnancy increase risk of autism by 87 percent

14th December 2015

Researchers came to their conclusion after reviewing data from the outcomes of 145,456 pregnancies.

The study published today in JAMA Pediatrics used data from the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort and studied 145,456 children between the time of their conception up to age ten. The study accounted for a number of other factors that have known links to autism, including genetic predisposition to autism (i.e., a family history of it), maternal age, depression itself, and certain socio-economic factors such as being exposed to poverty. Exposure to antidepressants was defined as the mother having had one or more prescription for antidepressants filled during the second or third trimester of the pregnancy.

Researchers suspect that because serotonin is involved in numerous pre- and postnatal developmental processes, antidepressants that inhibit serotonin (particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors known as SSRIs) will have a negative impact on the ability of the brain to fully develop in-utero.

We spoke with study senior author Professor Anick Bérard, Université de Montréal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre about the study. The full research team includes: Odile Sheehy, CHU Sainte-Justine, Laurent Mottron, Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies, and Takoua Boukhris, Université de Montréal.
The study published today in JAMA Pediatrics used data from the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort and studied 145,456 children between the time of their conception up to age ten. The study accounted for a number of other factors that have known links to autism, including genetic predisposition to autism (i.e., a family history of it), maternal age, depression itself, and certain socio-economic factors such as being exposed to poverty. Exposure to antidepressants was defined as the mother having had one or more prescription for antidepressants filled during the second or third trimester of the pregnancy.

Researchers suspect that because serotonin is involved in numerous pre- and postnatal developmental processes, antidepressants that inhibit serotonin (particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors known as SSRIs) will have a negative impact on the ability of the brain to fully develop in-utero.

We spoke with study senior author Professor Anick Bérard, Université de Montréal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre about the study. The full research team includes: Odile Sheehy, CHU Sainte-Justine, Laurent Mottron, Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies, and Takoua Boukhris, Université de Montréal.

ResearchGate: What were your results?

Anick Bérard: Using antidepressants, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), during the 2nd/3rd trimesters of pregnancy increases the risk of having a child with autism (87 percent increased risk of autism with any antidepressants; more than doubling the risk with SSRI use specifically) – this risk is above and beyond the risk associated with maternal depression alone (maternal depression was associated with a 20 percent increased risk of autism in our study). Given the mounting evidence showing increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcome with antidepressant use during pregnancy, our study shows that depression should be treated with other options (other than antidepressants) during this critical period.

Indeed, 80-85 percent of depressed pregnant women are mildly to moderately depressed; exercise and psychotherapy have been shown to be efficacious to treat depression in this sub-group. Therefore, we acknowledge that depression is a serious condition but that antidepressants are not always the best solution.

RG: We normally think of the first trimester as being the riskiest time for the fetus, but this study was actually in the second and third trimesters. Why is the risk greater later in pregnancy?

AB: 1st trimester exposure is problematic for embryogenesis; 2nd/3rd trimesters are critical for brain development. Hence, the critical time-window for our study was the later part of the pregnancy.

NOTE: Rest of this important article at research gate, link below:

https://www.researchgate.net/blog/po...-by-87-percent

[*Anya*]

8th December 2015

Long-work hours and stress have potentially dangerous consequences – for doctors and patients.

Researchers analyzed 50+ studies that looked for symptoms of depression in more than 17,500 medical residents. They found that 29 percent of physicians in training had signs of depression. The results of the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) are worrying for both doctors themselves and their patients.

We speak with the study’s senior author, Srijan Sen, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Michigan who worked with lead author Douglas Mata, of Harvard University to analyze the studies.

ResearchGate: What made you want to study depression among doctors?

Srijan Sen: Going through the experience of physician training ourselves, we noted how stressful the experience was and how many of our colleagues seemed to be suffering from depression.

RG: What were your results?

Sen: In our meta-analysis across 50+ studies, we found that 29 percent of residents screened positive for depression. We also found evidence of a small but significant increase in depression over time, with higher levels of depression among recent residents compared to those who trained decades ago.

RG: What are the signs of depression in new doctors?

Sen: After they start residency training, new doctors experience an increase in a range of depressive symptoms, including low mood and motivation, fatigue, concentration problems and, most concerning, suicidal thoughts.

RG: What do you think leads to depression in doctors?

Sen: There are a number of factors that are likely involved. In particular, the long hours, heavy workload, insufficient and inconsistent sleep and medical errors seem to be playing important roles.

RG: How does depression affect a doctor’s work?

Sen: There is growing evidence from both physicians and the general population that depression strongly affects work functioning. The evidence suggests that doctors who are depressed are substantially more likely to commit medical errors. In turn, medical errors increase the risk of depression in doctors.


RG: Are new doctors working today at a higher risk of depression than previous generations? If not, why?

Sen: The rate of depression appears slightly higher for the current generation of doctors. We do not know the factors behind this increase over time.

RG: What can be done? What should I as a patient do if I suspect that my doctor is depressed?

Sen: At a minimum, we should provide residents and training directors with evidence-based tools that have been shown to be effective in preventing the onset of depression and better access to treatment after depression has developed. To make a more dramatic impact on depression, more systematic changes in the medical education system may be necessary.

https://www.researchgate.net/blog/po...-of-depression