Body

Talking openly about blame and shame can benefit teens who self-harm, their families, and therapists, according to a new article.

Family therapists involved with the Self Harm Intervention Family Therapy (SHIFT) trial noticed certain patterns of interaction recurring in several families that presented particular challenges. They noted the importance of separate parallel sessions of the young person and the parents, who could then be brought back together for joint discussions.

In a mouse model of allergic asthma, dasatinib--an enzyme inhibitor approved for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia--reduced inflammation, enhanced airway repair, and improved lung mechanics.

The drug targets tyrosine kinases, which are enzymes that interact with a variety of cell-surface receptors and participate in signaling pathways within the cell. Dasatinib may be a potential treatment for asthma because some of the signaling pathways involved in inflammation are triggered by tyrosine kinases.

In a first-of-its-kind study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers calculated that infectious diseases account for 13.5 percent of emergency room (ER) visits involving older adults--a higher percentage than ER visits for heart attacks and congestive heart failure combined. Infectious diseases are those that can be passed from person-to-person and caused by viruses, bacteria, or parasites.

Human stem cells that are capable of becoming any other kind of cell in the body have previously only been acquired and cultivated with difficulty. A team of European scientists including researchers from the University of Bath has now developed a method to detect such pluripotent cells in a cell culture and preserve them in the laboratory.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Scientists chase unicorns because if they could prove the existence of the magical beasts, the world would be a better place.

Take Maren Friesen, Michigan State University plant biologist, for example. Her quest was to find near-mythical bacteria that could fix their own nitrogen. Her search for such magical beasties was based on results from Germany published in the 1990s that seemed to confirm their existence.

Speakers who nominally represent cancer patients at advisory meetings on new drugs often have financial ties with the company seeking marketing approval. And those ties aren't always disclosed, according to an analysis appearing in JAMA Internal Medicine.

WORCESTER, MA -- University of Massachusetts Medical School researchers have found a way to more efficiently delivery a CRISPR/Cas9 therapeutic to adult mice with the metabolic disease Tyrosinemia type I that may also prove to be safer for use in humans. A study published in Nature Biotechnology shows that administering the treatment by combining two delivery mechanisms already in clinical trials for other diseases led to correction of the mutated gene that causes the rare liver disorder in 6 percent of liver cells -- enough to effectively cure the disease in mice.

A new study found that lupus during pregnancy may have negative health impacts for women and their babies. The study included 13,598 Swedish women in their first pregnancy, and all were singleton pregnancies. Preeclampsia, hypothyroid disease, stroke, and infection were more common among women with lupus. Sixteen percent of pregnant women with lupus were diagnosed with preeclampsia compared with 5% from the general population.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (Feb. 1, 2016) -- An estimated 1 in 68 children in the United States has autism. The neurodevelopmental disorder, which impairs communication and social interaction skills, can be treated with medications and behavioral therapies, though there is no cure. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that a medication commonly used to treat high blood pressure and irregular heartbeats may have the potential to improve some social functions of individuals with autism.

A new review indicates that antimicrobial therapy given before clinicians take transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies to diagnose prostate cancer may lead to lower rates of sepsis, a potentially life-threatening infection.

The review, which included 9 studies in multiple countries, found that 27 men would need to receive targeted antibiotics to prevent one infective complication.

BOSTON, MA (Feb. 1, 2016) - Diagnosis and treatment decisions for a recently recognized type of children's brain tumor should be improved by the discovery of the genetic mechanism that causes it, say researchers who identified the unusual DNA abnormality in angiocentric gliomas.

PHILADELPHIA - For the first time, researchers have treated an animal model of a genetic disorder using a viral vector to deliver genome-editing components in which the disease- causing mutation has been corrected. Delivery of the vector to newborn mice improved their survival while treatment of adult animals, unexpectedly, made them worse, according to a new study by investigators from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania The team published their findings this week in Nature Biotechnology.

Medication adherence in chronic disease is poor. Can telephone text messaging help with adherence? A new article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine examines the question in a meta-analysis conducted by Jay Thakkar, F.R.A.C.P., and Clara K. Chow, Ph.D., of The George Institute for Global Health, the University of Sydney, Australia, and coauthors. The meta-analysis included 16 randomized clinical trials to assess the effect of text messaging on medication adherence in chronic disease.

The rate of abuse among children and adolescents by individuals in organizations that serve youth, including schools and recreational groups, was small compared with rates of abuse by family members and other adults, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

Child abuse in youth-serving organizations (YSOs) has gotten considerable attention because of news coverage of cases involving teachers, coaches, day care staff, clergy and scout leaders. Population surveys can be a source of developing information on the epidemiology of abuse in YSOs.

While most adolescents with newly identified depression symptoms received some treatment within three months, some of them did not receive any follow-up care and 40 percent of adolescents prescribed antidepressant medication did not have any documented follow-up care for three months, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.