| 27/07/2007 |
| Daily Telegraph |
| By: Presswatch |
| Cannabis 'doubles risk of developing a psychotic illness' |
| Cannabis users are 40 per cent more likely to develop a psychotic illness than non-users, a government-funded study has found. Heavy users are more than twice as likely to suffer mental illness, according to a group of British academics, who calculate that about one in seven cases of conditions such as schizophrenia is caused by cannabis. Dr Theresa Moore. of Bristol University, and Dr Stanley Zammit, of Cardiff University, who carried out the research, reviewed 35 studies going back to the 1960s and warned that it was vital young people were made aware of the dangers. They claimed to have "described a consistent association between cannabis use and psychotic symptoms, including disabling psychiatric disorders. We believe there is now enough evidence to inform people that using cannabis could increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life." In an accompanying editorial, Dr Merete Nordentoft and Dr Carsten Hjorthaj, of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, estimated that around 800 cases of schizophrenia in Britain could be prevented every year if people stopped smoking cannabis. |
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| 27/07/2007 |
| Daily Telegraph |
| By: Presswatch |
| Dieting between pregnancies 'puts next baby at risk' |
| Mothers who gain or lose a great deal of weight between pregnancies could be putting themselves and their babies at risk. Dr Jennifer Walsh, a specialist registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at Coombe Women's Hospital in Dublin, and Deirdre Murphy, a professor of obstetrics at Trinity College, University of Dublin, and Coombe Women's Hospital, found that women whose body mass index (BMI) fell by five or more units between pregnancies had a higher risk of giving birth prematurely. This is the equivalent of a 5ft 6in woman losing 2st (from a BMI of 32 to 27). On examining a Swedish study, they also found evidence to suggest that new mothers who excessively gained weight between pregnancies were putting their unborn babies at risk. The researchers urged women to maintain a healthy weight before, during and after pregnancy. |
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| 27/07/2007 |
| Daily Telegraph |
| By: Presswatch |
| Diabetes drugs 'can double risk of heart failure' |
| Drugs prescribed to 100,000 patients in Britain to treat diabetes have double the risk of heart failure. New analysis, which pools data from 78,000 patients, indicates that one in fifty patients treated with either Avandia or Actos for two and a half years would be admitted to hospital with heart failure. Researchers believe they could be responsible for an additional 5,000 cases of heart failure each year. The team from the University of East Anglia and the United States, led by Dr Yoon Loke, investigated more than 200 cases of heart failure while on the drugs and noted that while the risk was small, the fact that 500,000 people use them means it is not insignificant. Both Avandia and Actos - manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline and Takeda respectively - have been authorised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice). |
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| 27/07/2007 |
| Daily Telegraph |
| By: Presswatch |
| Children 'building antibiotic resistance' |
| Doctors were warned yesterday to cut down the amount of antibiotics they prescribe to children. Experts claimed the practice was creating high levels of resistance to antibiotics, with children receiving most antibiotics outside hospitals. David Mant and colleagues at the University of Oxford warned that prescriptions for the drugs were on the rise again after a significant drop. Their research, published online for the British Medical Journal, cites a 1999 paper which revealed that 55 per cent of children aged up to five received an average of 2.2 prescriptions from their GP each for an antibiotic such as amoxicillin. Although there had been an estimated 40 per cent drop since then, unpublished data suggested that antibiotic prescribing in the community was on the rise again. |
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| 27/07/2007 |
| Financial Times |
| By: Presswatch |
| A drug to slow Huntington's |
| A drug used in some countries to treat the symptoms of Huntington's disease has been found to prevent the death of brain cells in mice genetically engineered to mimic the hereditary condition. The drug, tetrabenazine (TBZ), blocks the action of dopamine, a compound some nerve cells use to signal others. Patients with Huntington's have too much dopamine activity in their brains. The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests new avenues of study for preventing brain-cell death in those at risk of developing the fatal genetic condition. In the course of their research, scientists found that TBZ also appeared to reduce cell loss in the area of the brain that plays a critical role in relaying signals concerning motion and higher thought. |
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| 27/07/2007 |
| The Times |
| By: Presswatch |
| NHS and Health Sector News |
| An overview of developments in the NHS and health sector leads today with the news that hundreds of junior doctors, including overseas staff, will be employed by hospitals from next week without undergoing proper security checks, The Times has learnt. Jeremy Levy, director of medical education at the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust in West London, asserted: "Because the system is so chaotic, we have only been told of the identity of junior doctors starting with us over the last ten days." Elsewhere, Alan Johnson, the health secretary, ordered officials yesterday to improve a pay offer to nurses and other healthcare workers in an attempt to avert industrial action across the NHS in England in the autumn. They will inform union leaders when negotiations resume today that a better deal is available for the lowest paid members of the 1.3 million strong workforce. Finally, doctors are being urged to be nicer to their patients to increase their chances of recovery. According to advice published in the British Medical Journal yesterday, doctors need to adopt an 'A,B,C and D of dignity' when treating the sick. |
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