Caries is one of our commonest diseases and increasing emphasis is being placed on identifying its earliest stages in order to employ effective interventions. Visual examination and radiographs have been the traditional approaches to caries detection but newer adjunctive methods based on fiber-optics, fluorescence or electrical impedance have been developed and introduced during the past [read the full story…]
Alcohol misuse is recognised as one of the major health care issues in the US. Specifically, alcohol misuse is ranked third in causes of preventable deaths (after tobacco and obesity) affecting 30% of the population. Alcohol dependence has 4% prevalence in the US, but hazardous drinking patterns are believed to be evident in 21% of [read the full story…]
Hospitals are supposed to make people better, not worse – so hospital-acquired infections are always a big topic. Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is the most commonly diagnosed cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, and causes more than 7,000 deaths each year in the US alone. There have been studies into risk factors for CDI, one of them [read the full story…]
In June this year The World Health Organisation (WHO) published a report, which highlighted violence against women as a ‘global health problem of epidemic proportions’. The report detailed the impact of violence on the physical and mental health of women and girls. This can range from broken bones to pregnancy-related complications, mental problems and impaired [read the full story…]
As part of its excellent ‘Too Much Medicine’ series, the British Medical Journal last week published an important analysis of the current direction of travel in the field of dementia care. The article is hard to ignore, written as it is by highly authoritative academics from the UK and Australia, including Professor Carol Brayne, an [read the full story…]
The harmful impact of depression extends far beyond the individual sufferer to caregivers, friends and family members. Children of people with depression are more likely to suffer from depression themselves. This may be due to both inherited and environmental factors. This new randomised controlled trial (RCT), published earlier this week in JAMA Psychiatry, set out [read the full story…]
Roughly 33% of stroke sufferers also develop depression at some point. This may be an under-estimate of the problem, as depression is difficult to detect in people with poor physical health. If missed, depression can led to reduced quality of life, increased disability and a worsening of physical symptoms. There are a whole host of [read the full story…]
The question of what role nutrition plays in mental health has been the sauce (ahem) of research interest in recent times. As covered previously by oursElves in relation to dementia, the majority of this research has looked at individual nutrients like Omega-3 fish oil and other minerals, with the broader area of diet receiving less [read the full story…]
A cohort study published in JAMA tried to answer the question what are the risk factors for suicide in the US military. This is a hot topic as the rate of suicide has increased in US military personnel from about 11/100,000 people in 2005 to about 18/100,000 so that now deaths from suicide outnumber deaths [read the full story…]
While most people would likely associate tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) with more common adverse effects such as dry mouth, sedation and constipation, there is some evidence to suggest increased occurrence of bone fractures (Vestergaard, Rejnmark, & Mosekilde, 2006). However, the topic remains controversial and conflicting results about the association of TCAs and fracture risk abound (e.g. [read the full story…]
