Archive for July, 2008

Jul 07 2008

Study Shows Depression And Anxiety Widespread In Young Tibetan Refugees

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A new study led by Emory University School of Medicine researcher Charles L. Raison, MD, is the first to show that depression and anxiety are more prevalent in Tibetan refugees than they are in ethnic Tibetans born and raised in the comparative stability of exile communities in Northern India and Nepal. The study findings were reported in the April 2008, on-line version of the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
"As political tensions within Tibet continue to erupt, it is estimated that approximately 2,500 Tibetan refugees per year cross the Himalayas into Nepal, seeking asylum there or in India," explains Raison, an assistant professor in Emory’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
"One-third of these refugees are children and ninety percent of those children are without parents. Not only have these children been victimized in an environment lacking in respect for human rights, but their escape from Tibet to India through the perilous Himalayas is full of risk and trauma."
The study was conducted in the Indian State of Himachal Pradesh at both the Upper Dharamsala and Bir campuses of the Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCV). TCV serves as the primary school system for ethnic Tibetans in exile in India and Nepal.
The Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25), a questionnaire widely used to measure depression and anxiety symptoms in refugee groups around the world, was completed by 319 student volunteers in grades 9 through 12 and by older students in grades 7 and 8. The students also were asked to provide demographic information such as place of birth, age and availability of family support in India.
Students born in Tibet demonstrated significantly higher depression and anxiety scores than Tibetans born in exile in either India or Nepal. Students who left Tibet at an older age or who had been in India for a shorter period of time had higher depression and anxiety scores, suggesting that experiences in Tibet may have promoted depression and anxiety, whereas time spent in India may have promoted an improvement of symptoms.
Other risk factors for depression and anxiety in the group as a whole included being female and having limited family contact; however, these factors did not account for the association between being born in Tibet and having increased anxiety and depression.
"It is very concerning that Tibetan refugees exhibited such significant depressive and anxiety symptoms," says Raison. "Also worrisome is that we discovered even the ethnic Tibetans born in exile had relatively high depressive and anxiety symptoms.
"These findings highlight the cost of the ongoing human rights crisis within Tibet in human emotional suffering. This is especially true for people born in Tibet who risk the hardships of escape to freedom in India. But even Tibetans born and raised in exile appear to be paying an emotional price for the loss of their homeland."
Raison concludes that there is a need for continued support for refugee communities, even after prolonged periods of what seems to be successful adaptation in an exile environment. He suggests that providing increased international resources toward the improvement of emotional functioning for these adolescents and young adults could make a significant difference.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Raison, who is corresponding author, received support for the study from the Emory Tibet Science Initiative, Emory University. Raison is director of the Behavioral Immunology Clinic, clinical director of the Mind-Body Program and co-director of Emory’s Collaborative for Contemplative Studies.
acheter levitra mastercard Vernacular Modernities Undergraduate Foreign Project Summer Scholarship and a Patrick Stewart Human Rights Scholarship provided funding for this study to David C. Buxton, Medical College of Virginia, who contributed to the study design and data collection and management.
Source: Kathi Baker
Emory University
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Jul 07 2008

Men, Blacks In Particular, Less Likely Than Women To Be Aware That They Have High Blood Pressure, Study Finds

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Men are one-quarter less likely than women to know that they have high blood pressure and black men with high blood pressure, are particularly unlikely to know of their condition, according to study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Reuters Health reports. For the study, lead researcher Ronald Victor of the University of Texas’ Southwestern Medical Center examined 1,514 black and white adults between the ages of 18 and 64 who participated in a heart health study that diagnosed them with high blood pressure.
One-third of the group said they had never been diagnosed with high blood pressure, with men being more likely than women to say they had not been diagnosed. The men also were less likely than women to have visited a doctor, and black men were more likely than both women and white men to say they have not seen a doctor because they believed they did not need to. Generic viagra pills no prescription Researchers said the findings are consistent with previous studies indicating that men, in particular "marginalized minority men," often avoid visiting a doctor.
In addition, the study found that those who had a regular physician were nearly four times more likely than those who did not to know they had high blood pressure and more than eight times more likely to be taking medication for it.
Victor said, "There is no such thing as a ‘well-man exam,’ and maybe that’s the issue. In our society, women learn to become health conscious in terms of preventive health care, and men don’t have that kind of emphasis from a young age." He added, "The explanation of the disparity, while not clear, isn’t closely associated with perceived discrimination at the doctor’s office, which is a good thing" (Reuters Health, 7/2).
An abstract of the study is available online.
Reprinted with kind permission from You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
© 2008 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
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Jul 07 2008

Cocaine More Likely To Be Chosen Over Food By Subordinate Monkeys

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Having a lower social standing increases the likelihood that a monkey faced with a stressful situation will choose cocaine over food, according to a study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. More dominant monkeys undergoing the same stressful situation had fewer changes in brain activity in areas of the brain involved in stress and anxiety and were less likely to choose cocaine.
Robert Warren Gould, a graduate student in the laboratory of Michael A. Nader, Ph.D., presented the study results Sunday at Experimental Biology 2008 in San Diego. The presentation was part of the scientific program of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET).
Male cynomolgus monkeys live in a complex social structure in which the social hierarchy is established by physical aggression and maintained by clear signals. A monkey that has established his dominance over another monkey can elicit a subordinate response with no more than a meaningful look.
The researchers exposed four dominant and four subordinate monkeys to a socially stressful situation in which an individual monkey was taken out of his home cage and placed in an unfamiliar cage surrounded by four unfamiliar animals. The monkey was physically safe, but he could see and hear the animals around him engaging in aggressive behavior.
The study was performed twice, in order to ask two different types of questions. The first concerned brain activity caused by the stressful situation. Before being placed in the unfamiliar cage, each monkey had been injected with radioactively labeled glucose. After 40 minutes, each was given a PET brain imaging examination to see which parts of the brain were most active, as determined by which parts were using the most glucose. This type of brain imaging has been used frequently in humans to determine brain activity during various activities and situations. The scan of the individual monkey’s brain during the stressful situation was compared to earlier scans made when the animal had spent time simply sitting in his own familiar home cage without stress.
The brains of dominant monkeys and subordinate monkeys responded differently in both situations. In the normal situation of sitting in their home cage, subordinate monkeys displayed less activity than did the dominant monkeys in areas of the brain involved in stress and anxiety (the amygdala and hippocampus) and also in areas of the brain involved with emotional and social processing (anterior cingulate cortex).
Gould and Nader say these findings suggest monkeys that have to cope with constant, ongoing social stressors may have developed a lower level of brain activity even at rest. In the abnormal situation of being placed in an unfamiliar cage surrounded by unfamiliar and aggressively behaving monkeys, however, the subordinate monkeys showed pronounced decreased brain activity in areas of the brain involved with stress, anxiety, reward, and emotion, whereas the dominant monkeys showed increases in reward-related areas after the same situation.
In a separate part of the study, researchers looked at the effect of the stressful situation on the likelihood that monkeys would use cocaine. After the 40 minutes in the unfamiliar cage surrounded by other monkeys, each monkey could choose between pressing a lever that they knew delivered cocaine or one that they knew delivered a food reward. The subordinate monkey was more likely to choose cocaine while the dominant monkey was less likely to choose cocaine after this encounter, compared to their respective typical choices during the days preceding this encounter.
These differences in both brain activity and the likelihood of using cocaine between animals of different social rank offer clues to the social context of drug use and addiction in humans, say the researchers. Nader said, "We believe this type of research can be used to identify better treatment strategies, including providing environmental enrichment, that may affect the likelihood of abusing drugs."
It’s also important, he said, to understand distinct patters of neurobiological activity occurring after acute social stress that may increase the attraction to cocaine in vulnerable individuals. Understanding the brain changes associated with stress also is critical in developing treatment and prevention strategies for disorders such as anxiety and depression that can result from chronic stress.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Gould and Nader’s coauthors are Kathryn E. Gill, B.S., Michael J. Wesley, B.S., Mac D. generishe cialis pillen Ohne Rezept Miller, M.S., Paul W. Czoty, Ph.D., Colleen A. Hanlon, Ph.D., and Linda J. Porrino, Ph.D., all of the medical school’s Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. Funding for the research came from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Brenner Children’s Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine and Piedmont Triad Research Park. The system comprises 1,154 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and has been ranked as one of "America’s Best Hospitals" by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. Wake Forest Baptist is ranked 32nd in the nation by America’s Top Doctors for the number of its doctors considered best by their peers. The institution ranks in the top third in funding by the National Institutes of Health and fourth in the Southeast in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.
Source: Karen Richardson
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
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Jul 06 2008

Food Allergies On A Stick: The Risks Of Summer Eating

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Most people would rather not know what goes into the corndog they consume at the summer carnival.
But for the 12 million Americans with food allergies, awareness of ingredients is a must for safely eating their way through summer events, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI).
"People with food allergies must be extra vigilant when eating at summer fairs and festivals," said Amal H. Assa’ad, MD, FAAAAI and Chair of the AAAAI Adverse Reactions to Foods Committee. "There are many questions about ingredients, preparations and possible cross-contamination that if left unanswered could lead to an allergic reaction."
The stakes are high. A single bite of the wrong food can induce anaphylaxis, a life-threatening reaction, in severely allergic people. The AAAAI estimates that up to 150 people die each year from anaphylaxis caused by food allergy.
More commonly, allergic reactions to food result in skin irritation, asthma symptoms or gastrointestinal upset. But even mild symptoms can quickly spoil the fun of a summer festival, ball game or wedding.
Food allergic people should always be aware that allergens can show up in unexpected places. In an effort to eliminate trans-fat, for example, many vendors have switched to peanut oil or soybean oil for their fryers. Some people with allergies to peanut or soy can also experience reactions to these oils.
An allergist/immunologist can identify the specific risks for an individual and provide information and support for avoiding the problem foods.
AAAAI offers these tips to avoid a serious allergic reaction to food:
1. Diagnose allergies Visit an allergist/immunologist for a medical diagnosis of food allergies.
2. Generico cialis pillole senza ricetta Avoid the food The best way to prevent food allergy is to avoid the specific foods to which you are allergic.
3. Ask about ingredients To avoid eating a "hidden" food allergen away from home, inquire about the ingredients in a food item and inform party hosts, service staff or vendors of the severity of your allergy.
4. Read food labels The United States and many other countries have adopted food labeling rules that ensure common allergens are listed. It is important for food-allergic people to carefully read all food labels.
5. Be prepared for emergencies Anaphylactic reactions caused by food allergies can be life-threatening. Those who have had a severe reaction in the past should carry self-injectable epinephrine at all times.
Learn more about food allergies at summer events or find an allergist in your area at
The AAAAI represents allergists, asthma specialists, clinical immunologists, allied health professionals and others with a special interest in the research and treatment of allergic disease. Established in 1943, the AAAAI is the United States’ largest professional membership organization dedicated to the allergy/immunology specialty. The AAAAI has nearly 6,500 members in the United States, Canada and 60 other countries.
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology
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Jul 06 2008

Joint Statement On FDA Investigation Of Singulair From The AAAAI And ACAAI

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Leadership from the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology and the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology released the following statement in response to the Thursday announcement of a Food and Drug Administration investigation into Singulair:
There are no data from well-designed studies to indicate a link between Singulair and suicide. generic cialis online buy The concern expressed by the FDA is based entirely on case reports and there is no indication that such effects apply to other leukotriene-modifying medications.
Post-marketing case reports are incomplete. Furthermore, comparative data are lacking on the incidence of suicide in the general population versus the incidence in patients taking Singulair. Thus, it is unknown whether there is an increased incidence of suicide in patients receiving Singulair.
Based on the information currently available, patients taking Singulair should continue to take the medication as prescribed provided: 1) the patient and physician feel the medication is effective; and 2) the patient does not experience any suicidal behavior or thoughts.
Patients who experience suicidal thoughts or demonstrate suicidal behavior should consult their physician immediately to discuss whether to continue with this medication. Patients should not hesitate to consult their physician if they feel uncomfortable continuing on the medication.
American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology
View drug
information on Singulair.
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