Why do we feel confident about some choices while we question others? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, it's a combination of how easy the choice seems and whether we're thinking concretely or abstractly.
Culture
An intervention in primary care settings that allowed a choice of cognitive behavior therapy, medication, or both, along with computer-assisted treatment support for patients with common anxiety disorders, resulted in greater improvement in anxiety symptoms and functional disability compared to usual care, according to a study in the May 19 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on mental health.
Peter Roy-Byrne, M.D., of the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing on mental health.
Two common operations for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) help women achieve similar levels of dryness, according to a team of urologists and urogynecologists who compared the treatments in a large U.S. trial supported by the National Institutes of Health. The study is being released online May 17, 2010, by the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with a presentation at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Results will appear in the June 3 print edition.
Food from fisheries, trade and transport through shipping, income from tourism and recreation – we rely on our seas. Managing this rich resource is a challenge that calls for reframing humans as integral parts of marine ecosystems, say scientists from three of Europe's leading marine organisations in a new report launching during EU Maritime Day 2010.
An international team of scientists have discovered that climate change played a major role in causing mass extinction of mammals in the late quaternary era, 50,000 years ago. Their study, published in Evolution, takes a new approach to this hotly debated topic by using global data modelling to build continental 'climate footprints.'
Vaccinia immunization, as given to prevent the spread of smallpox, produces a five-fold reduction in HIV replication in the laboratory. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Immunology suggest that the end of smallpox vaccination in the mid-20th century may have caused a loss of protection that contributed to the rapid contemporary spread of HIV.
ATS 2010, NEW ORLEANS— ICU-acquired infection rates are not an indication of patients' mortality risk, according to researchers the University of Pennsylvania, undermining a central tenet of many pay-for-performance initiatives.
Public reporting of quality data is increasingly common in health care. These "report cards" are designed to improve the quality of care by helping patients choose the best hospitals. Yet, they only work if they successfully identify high performers, and may be misleading if they steer patients toward poor performers.
Authors of a new article in Annals of Internal Medicine, offer a solution to the ongoing problem of conflict of interest in the development of clinical guidelines.
Clinical guidelines influence medical practice. While most guidelines are evidence-based, composition of the panel reviewing the data may influence how evidence is interpreted. For this reason, panelists' conflicts of interest are an area of concern. Professional organizations have developed more rigorous regulation regarding conflict of interest, but issues still remain.
Focusing on the negative effects indoor tanning can have on appearance appears to reduce indoor tanning behavior, even among young women who report that they tan to relax or alleviate seasonal mood disorders, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Individuals treated for acne, psoriasis or another skin condition with vitamin A analogues (retinoids) do not appear to be at increased risk of fracture, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Menopause. Normal pregnancy. Infertility. ADHD. Erectile dysfunction. Over the last several decades, these conditions have come to be defined and treated as medical problems. They've been "medicalized." In the first study of its kind in the current issue of Social Science and Medicine, Brandeis researchers used national data to estimate the costs of these and a handful of other common conditions on escalating U.S. healthcare spending.
Nurses in Belgium who administer life-ending drugs in euthanasia and in cases without explicit patient request often act outside of the law, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.091881v1?ijkey=0bc4785f6a054de8be0ac118ab1b0ac35e2c4de7&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha.
Lake Tanganyika, the second-oldest and second-deepest lake in the world, could be in for some rough waters.Geologists have determined that the East African rift lake has experienced unprecedented warming during the last century; its surface waters are the warmest on record.
That finding is important, the scientists state in this week's on-line issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, because the warm surface waters likely will affect fish stocks upon which millions of people in the region depend.
Hospitals are large, complex institutions housing innumerable units, sections and visitor destinations. And in the United States alone, diversity is increasing within most locales, making it difficult to comply with federal requirements for text signs in patients' languages.