Culture

Among patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease, a daily dosage of 2,000 IUs of vitamin E, compared to placebo, was effective in slowing functional decline and in reducing caregiver time in assisting patients, according to a study appearing in the January 1 issue of JAMA.

MAYWOOD, Ill. – The imminent death of a patient is riddled with emotions for a patient and family as well as the medical team. A study based on the reflections of third-year Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine students is shedding light on the struggle physicians in training often face when trying to control their own emotions while not becoming desensitized to the needs of the dying patient and his or her family.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Black, Hispanic and Asian physicians play an outsized role in the care of disadvantaged patients nationally. Patients who have low incomes, are from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, have Medicaid insurance, or who do not speak English – groups that historically have difficulty in accessing medical care – are substantially more likely to receive their care from a minority physician, according to a new study appearing online in today's [Dec. 30] issue of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

DURHAM, N.C. – Doctors are missing a prime opportunity to share information about sex with their teenage patients by failing to broach the subject during checkups, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.

The study, published Dec. 30, 2013, in JAMA Pediatrics, found that less than two thirds of doctors and teenage patients talk about sex, sexuality or dating during annual visits, and the conversations that occur last less than a minute on average.

AURORA, Colo. (Dec. 30, 2013) – A study from the University of Colorado School of Medicine shows patients with Medicaid insurance seeking care in an emergency department may be driven by lack of alternatives instead of the severity of their illness. The study is published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM).

This news release is available in Spanish.

(Boston) – A recent study led by researchers from the Amyloidosis Center at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) demonstrates that diflunisal, a generic anti-inflammatory drug, successfully reduced neurological decline and preserved the quality of life in patients with familial transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR). Diflunisal is an inexpensive and safe medication marketed over the past 40 years for arthritis and pain.

Adolescents girls with sexual abuse-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experienced greater benefit from prolonged exposure therapy (a type of therapy that has been shown effectiveness for adults) than from supportive counseling, according to a study appearing in the December 25 issue of JAMA.

Among patients with idiopathic (of unknown cause) gastroparesis, use of the antidepressant nortriptyline compared with placebo for 15 weeks did not result in improvement in overall symptoms, according to a study appearing in the December 25 issue of JAMA. Gastroparesis is a disease of the muscles of the stomach or the nerves controlling the muscles that causes the muscles to stop working, which can result in inadequate grinding of food by the stomach and poor emptying of food from the stomach into the intestine.

Among patients with familial amyloid polyneuropathy, a lethal, genetic neurodegenerative disease, use of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent diflunisal compared with placebo for 2 years reduced the rate of progression in neurological impairment and preserved quality of life, according to a study appearing in the December 25 issue of JAMA.

The drug inosine appears to be a safe and effective way to raise blood and cerebrospinal fluid urate levels in patients with early Parkinson disease (PD), suggesting it may be a potential strategy to slow the disability progression of the degenerative neurological disorder, according to a report published by JAMA Neurology, a JAMA Network publication.

This news release is available in German.

A new study shows that coronary artery calcium (CAC) screening, an assessment tool that is not currently recommended for people considered at low risk, should play a more prominent role in helping determine a person's risk for heart attack and heart disease-related death, as well as the need for angioplasty or bypass surgery. CAC screening provides a direct measure of calcium deposits in heart arteries and is easily obtained on a computed tomography (CT) scan.

New research shows mortality rates are two times higher in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies. Findings published in the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) journal Arthritis & Rheumatism, soon to be called Arthritis & Rheumatology, indicate the higher mortality rates persisted after adjusting for age, positive rheumatoid factor, positive antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) use.

If you are looking for honest companies to invest in, check out businesses based in more religious communities, suggests a new paper.

The paper says that businesses with head offices in places with high levels of "religiosity" were less likely to experience stock price crashes as a result of not disclosing bad financial news. And it didn't matter whether those at the top were religious or not. Just being in a town where social norms are influenced by religious codes of behavior was enough to rub off on the companies operating there.