Author Archives : Emily Lunardo

Falls in the elderly are shown to be caused by urinary tract infections (UTI) and blood and respiratory infections. These infections are commonly causes by a bacteria that has entered the body. Falls are serious problems for the elderly as their bones are frailer, thus contributing to greater consequences such as fractures. Healing time also ...click here to read more

Eighty-five percent of depression treatment apps that are currently accredited by the National Health Services (NHS) have been found to lack evidence of their effectiveness. This is problematic because a stamp of approval from NHS may increase patients’ reliance on them as a form of treatment but, unfortunately, many of them fall short. Researchers feel ...click here to read more

Lithium, a common treatment for adult bipolar disorder, has been shown to be safe for children with the condition, for a short period of time at least. Bipolar disorder, a condition characterized by extreme mood swings, is commonly treated with lithium. Bipolar disorder generally begins during the teenage years, so the use of lithium in ...click here to read more

Early chronic kidney disease (CKD) diagnosis is now possible with new blood markers. Roughly 10 percent of the population is affected by chronic kidney disease, which can contribute to kidney failure, heart disease and premature death. Early detection of CKD relies on measurements of metabolic creatinine that only become elevated once 50 percent of the ...click here to read more

Heavy smoking and alcohol abuse have been linked with DNA changes, which can accelerate the aging process. Research was presented at the 2015 American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting. Researchers used publicly available data from Gene Expression Omnibus and analyzed patterns in DNA methylation. Previous research revealed methylation changes could predict how people age ...click here to read more

Depression, anxiety and mental disorders in teens increase chronic pain risk, according to new findings. The research comes from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the University of Basel in Switzerland where they found that one in four teenagers with a mental disorder also experiences chronic pain. They also found that the mental disorder appeared prior to the ...click here to read more

Women are more likely to experience chronic pain, so a popular treatment is opioid therapy. New research suggests that this long-term use of opioid therapy for chronic pain is only effective in roughly 20 percent of women. Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of long-term opioid therapy in women. They uncovered that young and middle-aged women at ...click here to read more

Hallucinations are a key symptom of schizophrenia, but research suggests that hallucinations alone are not a good predictor of the onset of schizophrenia. The findings come from the University of North Carolina Health Center, where researchers found illogical thoughts are more useful in the diagnosis of schizophrenia than hallucinations. First author, Diana Perkins, M.D., said, ...click here to read more