Nicotine can protect the brain from Parkinson's disease, research suggests

ScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2011) — If you've ever wondered if nicotine offered society any benefit, a new study published in The FASEB Journal offers a surprising answer. Nicotine can protect the brain against Parkinson's disease, the research suggests, and the discovery of how nicotine does this may lead to entirely new types of treatments for the disease.

"This study raises the hope for a possible neuroprotective treatment of patients at an early step of the disease or even before at a stage where the disease has not been diagnosed according to motor criteria," said Patrick P. Michel, co-author of the study from the Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, in Paris, France.

To make this discovery, scientists used mice genetically engineered without a specific nicotine receptor (the alpha-7 subtype) and mice with a functional receptor. Using tissue from mouse embryos, researchers prepared brain cultures using conditions that favor the slowly progressing loss of dopamine neurons, a hallmark of the disease. The scientists found that nicotine had the potential to rescue dopamine neurons in cultures from normal mice, but not in cultures from mice without the nicotine receptor. These findings suggest that it may be feasible to develop novel therapies for Parkinson's disease that target nicotine receptors, particularly the alpha-7 nicotine receptor.

"If you're a smoker, don't get too excited," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Even if smoking protects you from Parkinson's, you might not live long enough to develop the disease because smoking greatly increases the risk for deadly cancers and cardiovascular diseases. But now, we should be able find non-toxic ways to hit the same target."

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

D. Toulorge, S. Guerreiro, A. Hild, U. Maskos, E. C. Hirsch, P. P. Michel. Neuroprotection of midbrain dopamine neurons by nicotine is gated by cytoplasmic Ca2. The FASEB Journal, 2011; 25 (8): 2563 DOI: 10.1096/fj.11-182824

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New antidepressants can increase risks for elderly, study suggests

ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2011) — Older people taking new generation antidepressants are at more risk of dying or suffering from a range of serious health conditions including stroke, falls, fractures and epilepsy, suggests a new study involving researchers at The University of Nottingham.

The research, published on the British Medical Journal website, discovered that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are more strongly associated with an increased risk of several adverse outcomes in people over the age of 65 with depression compared with older tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs).

The authors say the risks and benefits of different antidepressants should be carefully considered when prescribing these drugs to elderly patients and have called for further research to investigate the findings.

Dr Carol Coupland, Associate Professor in Medical Statistics in The University of Nottingham's Division of Primary Care said: "We've found some evidence from our study that the older tricyclic antidepressants may be associated with lower risks of several adverse outcomes compared with newer antidepressants in older people diagnosed as having depression.

"This was an unexpected finding, and so further research using other data sources is needed to confirm these findings as well as provide more evidence on the benefits of different antidepressants in this group of people."

Depression is a common condition in older people and antidepressants -- particularly SSRIs -- are widely used. However, very little is known about the safety of these drugs in older people.

The team of researchers from the Universities of Nottingham and East Anglia set out to investigate the potential link between antidepressant treatment and the risk of a number of potentially life-threatening outcomes in older people.

They identified 60,746 UK patients aged 65 and over with a newly diagnosed episode of depression between 1996 and 2007 using the QResearch primary care database. Many patients had other conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, and were taking several medications.

Patients were tracked until the end of 2008. During this time, 89 per cent (54,038) received at least one prescription for an antidepressant, and a total of 1,398,359 prescriptions for antidepressants were received. Of these 57 per cent were for SSRIs, 31 per cent for TCAs, 0.2 per cent for monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and 13.5 per cent for other antidepressants.

Antidepressant use was then analysed against several adverse outcomes including all-cause mortality, attempted suicide or self harm, heart attack, stroke, falls, fractures, epilepsy or seizures and high salt levels in the blood (hyponatraemia).

After adjusting for factors that could affect the results, including age, sex, severity of depression, other illnesses and use of other medications, the team found that SSRIs and drugs in the group of other antidepressants were associated with an increased risk of several adverse outcomes compared with TCAs.

Those taking SSRIs were more likely to die, suffer a stroke, fall or fracture, have epilepsy or a seizure and have hyponatraemia compared with TCAs. The group of other antidepressants were associated with an increased risk of mortality, attempted suicide or self-harm, stroke, fracture and epilepsy or seizures.

Patients in the study had a seven per cent risk of dying over one year while they were not taking antidepressants, while the comparable risks were 8.1 per cent when taking TCAs, 10.6 per cent for SSRIs and 11.4 per cent for the group of other antidepressants. For stroke, one-year risks were 2.3 per cent, 2.6 per cent and three per cent (compared with 2.2 per cent when not on antidepressants) and for fracture they were 2.2 per cent, 2.7 per cent and 2.8 per cent compared with 1.8 per cent.

Among individual drugs trazodone, mirtazapine and venlafaxine carried the highest risk for some adverse outcomes.

Rates of most adverse outcomes were highest in the 28 days after starting the antidepressant and also in the 28 days after stopping.

The authors also point out that TCAs were prescribed at lower doses than SSRIs and other antidepressant drugs, which they say "could in part explain our findings." They also caution that differences between patients prescribed different antidepressant drugs may account for some of the associations seen in the study, underlining the need for further research to confirm the findings.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Nottingham, via AlphaGalileo.

Journal Reference:

C. Coupland, P. Dhiman, R. Morriss, A. Arthur, G. Barton, J. Hippisley-Cox. Antidepressant use and risk of adverse outcomes in older people: population based cohort study. BMJ, 2011; 343 (aug02 1): d4551 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d4551

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Weight loss from gastric bypass may be partly due to dietary fat aversion, study suggests

ScienceDaily (July 27, 2011) — Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, the most common type of bariatric surgery in the United States, is currently considered the most effective therapy for morbid obesity. Patients who undergo this procedure, in which the stomach is reduced to a small pouch and connected to the middle of the small intestine, often lose massive amounts of weight. However, the reasons behind this surgery's success have been unclear. Shedding more light on why this procedure prompts such dramatic weight loss, a team of researchers has found, in a study using both humans and rats, that Roux-en-Y appears to lead patients to significantly reduce their intake of dietary fat. This effect, which was present for both solid and liquid dietary fat, lingered for up to 200 days after surgery in the animals. Further experiments suggest that this fat avoidance is triggered through digestive consequences, rather than just altered taste, and may be the result of an excess of hormones previously linked to food avoidance.

The study appears online in the American Journal of Physiology -- Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology, published by the American Physiological Society.

Methodology

The researchers used data from a study in obese people comparing gastric bypass to vertical-banded gastroplasty. At 1 and 6 years after surgery, these patients were asked to fill out questionnaires that included a series of questions to determine whether they avoided certain foods.

The researchers also performed either Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or sham operations on rats. At time points ranging from 10 to 200 days after surgery, these animals were subjected to various food preference experiments.

In one experiment, the rats were offered either high- or low-fat chow, with the researchers comparing the animals' intake of both foods before and after surgery. Similarly, the rats were presented with bottles containing either water or various concentrations of a fat emulsions, with the researchers recording intake of each liquid. To determine whether taste could be responsible for preference, the researchers recorded how many licks the animals took at each bottle when it was offered for only a brief amount of time.

To determine whether digestive effects instead might be responsible for aversions, rather than taste, the researchers offered the rats water flavored with saccharine, which they typically prefer to unflavored water. They then placed a feeding tube directly into the stomachs of the animals and infused some with corn oil and others with saline solution. Other animals received an injection that causes unpleasant sensations. Previous studies have shown that animals can be conditioned to avoid foods they associate with illness -- for example, by avoiding saccharine-flavored water after becoming ill from lithium chloride. Consequently, the researchers reasoned that if corn oil caused unpleasant digestive effects, the rats fed this liquid might also avoid the saccharine-flavored water. Additionally, the researchers tested the levels of GLP-1 and PYY, hormones previously linked with food avoidance, in both the Roux-en-Y and sham-operated animals.

Results

Questionnaires from human patients revealed that those who had gastric bypass were significantly more likely to report a reduction in dietary fat intake compared to those who had gastroplasty instead.

The researchers found that rats who underwent Roux-en-Y surgery consumed significantly lower proportions of high-fat chow and higher proportions of low-fat chow compared to the sham-operated animals. Additionally, those animals who underwent the bypass surgery showed a lower preference for high concentrations of the fat emulsions compared to those who received the sham operation. The Roux-en-Y animals had about the same preference for all concentrations of the fat emulsion when exposed to these liquids for only brief amounts of time. However, those that had a small amount of corn oil infused into their stomach were more likely to avoid the saccharine-flavored water than those infused with saline, much like those given the lithium chloride injections. Levels of GLP-1 were significantly higher in the Roux-en-Y rats compared to the non-bypass animals.

Importance of the Findings

The results suggest that people and animals who undergo Roux-en-Y gastric bypass decrease their consumption of both solid and liquid dietary fat, possibly helping people stick to a healthier diet. This avoidance does not appear to be triggered by taste alone, but can be influenced by the effects after ingestion. The hormone GLP-1 might be partly responsible for these effects.

"These findings suggest that changes in fat preference may contribute to long-term maintained weight loss after gastric bypass," the authors wrote. "By elucidating the mechanisms by which obesity surgery reduces the consumption of high fat foods, new surgical and non-surgical therapies could be developed that mimic these mechanisms to offer safe and effective weight loss."

Study Team

The study team was composed of Carel le Roux, Marco Bueter, Torsten Olbers, Hutan Ashrafian, Thanos Athanasious and Stephen Bloom, all of Imperial Weight Centre, Imperial College London, UK; Nadine Theis, Christian Löwenstein, and Thomas A. Lutz, the Institute of Veterinary Physiology Zurich, Switzerland; Malin Werling, Goteborg University, Goteborg, Sweden; Alan Spector, Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by American Physiological Society.

Journal Reference:

Carel W. Le Roux, Marco Bueter, Nadine Theis, Malin Werling, Hutan Ashrafian, Christian Löwenstein, Thanos Athanasiou, Stephen R. Bloom, Alan C. Spector, Torsten Olbers, Thomas Alexander Lutz. Gastric bypass reduces fat intake and preference. American Journal of Physiology -- Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology, 2011; DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.00139.2011

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Children and adolescent cell phone users at no greater risk of brain cancer than non-users, study suggests

ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011) — Children and adolescents who use mobile phones are not at a statistically significant increased risk of brain cancer compared to their peers who do not use mobile phones, according to a study published July 27 in the Journal of The National Cancer Institute.

Mobile phone usage has increased among children and adolescents in recent years. The increased usage has raised a concern about the possibility of the development of brain tumors in this population since children have a developing nervous system; also, because their head circumference is smaller, the radio frequency electromagnetic fields may penetrate regions that are deeper in their brains. However, no previous study has examined whether mobile phone usage among children and adolescents is associated with a difference in brain tumor risk.

To determine the relationship between mobile phone usage and brain tumor risk among children and adolescents, Martin Röösli, Ph.D, of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland, and colleagues looked at the medical records of children aged 7-19 with brain tumors, identified through population registries. Researchers did face-to-face interviews with them regarding their mobile phone usage. They also consulted data from phone network providers.

The study, conducted between 2004 and 2008, included participants from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. They looked at data for 352 brain cancer patients, and 646 control subjects.

The researchers found that patients with brain tumors were not statistically significantly more likely to have been regular mobile phone users than control subjects. They found that 265 (75.3%) of case patients and 466 control subjects (72.1%) reported having spoken on a mobile phone more than 20 times before the time when the case patient was diagnosed. Furthermore, 194 case patients (55%) and 329 control subjects (51%) reported regular mobile phone usage. However, in a subset of study participants for whom operator recorded data were available, brain tumor risk was related to the time elapsed since the mobile phone subscription was started (but not to amount of use). No increased risk of brain tumors was observed for brain areas receiving the highest amount of exposure.

The researchers write, "Because we did not find a clear exposure-response relationship in most of these analyses, the available evidence does not support a causal association between the use of mobile phones and brain tumors." Nevertheless, since mobile phone usage among children and adolescents has increased over the years, they encourage a careful watch on the trend.

In an accompanying editorial, John D Boice, Jr., ScD. and Robert E. Tarone, PhD., of the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Maryland and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee write that Röösli and his colleagues "have filled an important gap in knowledge by showing no increased risk of brain tumors among children and adolescents who are regular cell phone users"

Boice and Tarone conclude that it is reassuring that the incidence rates of brain cancer in the general population, including children and teenagers, have not changed over the past 20 years in the United States and many other countries despite the steady and marked rise in the use of cell phones throughout the world since the 1980s. They recommend that investigators continue to monitor population incidence rates and that in the meantime, individuals who are concerned might consider alternatives to holding a cell phone up to their ears, such as using an ear piece or using the phone's speaker. They also point out that individuals should heed what is known about real risks by avoiding the use of cell phones while driving a car, because such distractions have been clearly documented to increase the risk of accidents and injuries.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Journal of the National Cancer Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal References:

John D. Boice, Jr and Robert E. Tarone. Cell Phones, Cancer, and Children. J Natl Cancer Inst, July 27, 2011 DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djr285Denis Aydin, Maria Feychting, Joachim Schüz, Tore Tynes, Tina Veje Andersen, Lisbeth Samsø Schmidt, Aslak Harbo Poulsen, Christoffer Johansen, Michaela Prochazka, Birgitta Lannering, Lars Klæboe, Tone Eggen, Daniela Jenni, Michael Grotzer, Nicolas Von der Weid, Claudia E. Kuehni, and Martin Röösli. Mobile Phone Use and Brain Tumors in Children and Adolescents: A Multicenter Case–Control Study. J Natl Cancer Inst, July 27, 2011 DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djr244

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Omega-3 reduces anxiety and inflammation in healthy students, study suggests

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2011) — A new study gauging the impact of consuming more fish oil showed a marked reduction both in inflammation and, surprisingly, in anxiety among a cohort of healthy young people.

The findings suggest that if young participants can get such improvements from specific dietary supplements, then the elderly and people at high risk for certain diseases might benefit even more.

The findings by a team of researchers at Ohio State University were just published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity. It is the latest from more than three decades of research into links between psychological stress and immunity.

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), have long been considered as positive additives to the diet. Earlier research suggested that the compounds might play a role in reducing the level of cytokines in the body, compounds that promote inflammation, and perhaps even reduce depression.

Psychological stress has repeatedly been shown to increase cytokine production so the researchers wondered if increasing omega-3 might mitigate that process, reducing inflammation.

To test their theory, they turned to a familiar group of research subjects -- medical students. Some of the earliest work these scientists did showed that stress from important medical school tests lowered students' immune status.

"We hypothesized that giving some students omega-3 supplements would decrease their production of proinflammatory cytokines, compared to other students who only received a placebo," explained Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychology and psychiatry.

"We thought the omega-3 would reduce the stress-induced increase in cytokines that normally arose from nervousness over the tests."

The team assembled a field of 68 first- and second-year medical students who volunteered for the clinical trial. The students were randomly divided into six groups, all of which were interviewed six times during the study. At each visit, blood samples were drawn from the students who also completed a battery of psychological surveys intended to gauge their levels of stress, anxiety or depression. The students also completed questionnaires about their diets during the previous weeks.

Half the students received omega-3 supplements while the other half were given placebo pills.

"The supplement was probably about four or five times the amount of fish oil you'd get from a daily serving of salmon, for example," explained Martha Belury, professor of human nutrition and co-author in the study.

Part of the study, however, didn't go according to plans.

Changes in the medical curriculum and the distribution of major tests throughout the year, rather than during a tense three-day period as was done in the past, removed much of the stress that medical students had shown in past studies.

"These students were not anxious. They weren't really stressed. They were actually sleeping well throughout this period, so we didn't get the stress effect we had expected," Kiecolt-Glaser said.

But the psychological surveys clearly showed an important change in anxiety among the students: Those receiving the omega-3 showed a 20 percent reduction in anxiety compared to the placebo group.

An analysis of the of the blood samples from the medical students showed similar important results.

"We took measurements of the cytokines in the blood serum, as well as measured the productivity of cells that produced two important cytokines, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFa)," said Ron Glaser, professor of molecular virology, immunology & medical genetics and director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research.

"We saw a 14 percent reduction in the amounts of IL-6 among the students receiving the omega-3." Since the cytokines foster inflammation, "anything we can do to reduce cytokines is a big plus in dealing with the overall health of people at risk for many diseases," he said.

While inflammation is a natural immune response that helps the body heal, it also can play a harmful role in a host of diseases ranging from arthritis to heart disease to cancer.

While the study showed the positive impact omega-3 supplements can play in reducing both anxiety and inflammation, the researchers aren't willing to recommend that the public start adding them to the daily diet.

"It may be too early to recommend a broad use of omega-3 supplements throughout the public, especially considering the cost and the limited supplies of fish needed to supply the oil," Belury said. "People should just consider increasing their omega-3 through their diet."

Some of the researchers, however, acknowledged that they take omega-3 supplements.

Also working on the research with Kiecolt-Glaser, Glaser and Belury were William Malarkey, professor emeritus of internal medicine, and Rebecca Andridge, an assistant professor of public health.

The study was supported in part by a grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Ohio State University. The original article was written by Earle Holland.

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Adding a stent during minimally invasive surgery to repair aneurysms prevents recurrence, study suggests

ScienceDaily (July 26, 2011) — The addition of a simple stent can help prevent potentially lethal blood vessel bulges in the brain from recurring after they are repaired in a minimally invasive "coiling" procedure, according to new research by Johns Hopkins physicians. A report on the research, published in the July Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery, could make coiling a more viable option for the 30,000 people diagnosed with brain aneurysms each year in the United States, the investigators say.

Cerebral aneurysms, abnormal outward pouching of blood vessels in the brain, are traditionally repaired by an "open" operation, in which surgeons remove part of the skull, cut into the brain to reach the affected blood vessel, and then place a metal clip on the vessel where it balloons outward to close it down. In the past several years, surgeons are increasingly repairing aneurysms through coiling, in which they thread a platinum wire into a small incision in the groin, push it through the body's network of blood vessels to the bulging one, then pack the wire into the bulge where a natural clotting reaction closes it off.

Though endovascular (through the vessel) coiling has significant benefits compared to clipping, such as a lower risk of infection and recovery times measured in weeks instead of months, it also comes with a significant drawback -- recurrence of the aneurysm about a third of the time, says study leader Alex Coon, M.D., assistant professor of neurosurgery, neurology and radiology and director of endovascular surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Traditional aneurysm surgery has a low recurrence rate of about two percent.

To avoid recurrence and the need for further surgery, some surgeons have experimented with insertion of a stent, or small tube, in the blood vessel near the neck of the aneurysm. The goal is to prop open the affected vessel so that more wire can be packed into the bulge.

To learn whether stents actually prevent recurrence or add complications, Coon and his colleagues looked at medical records of 90 people whose aneurysms were repaired by coiling at The Johns Hopkins Hospital between May 1992 and March 2009. A stent was used in a third of the operations.

After two years of follow-up, the researchers found that aneurysms recurred in more than 40 percent of patients who did not have stents. The recurrence rate in the stented patients was only about 15 percent, and stented patients had no more complications than those without stents.

Coon notes that endovascular surgery for aneurysms is becoming more common, and knowing what can prevent recurrence will help surgeons and patients make informed decisions about the choice of procedure.

"It's easy to treat someone's aneurysm, but can you treat it durably and make it last? We've now shown in our study that stenting -- something that makes sense from an engineering perspective, a clinical perspective and a common sense perspective -- truly works," he says.

Other Johns Hopkins researchers who participated in this study include Geoffrey P. Colby, Alexandra R. Paul, Martin G. Radvany, Dheeraj Ghandi, Philippe Gailloud, Judy Huang, and Rafael J. Tamargo.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Schools failing pupils with sickle cell disease, U.K. study suggests

ScienceDaily (July 20, 2011) — A new study suggests young people with a serious genetic blood disorder are not getting the right help at school, especially pupils who miss lessons due to sickness.

Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) at De Montfort University, the University of York and Loughborough University reveals that most children with sickle cell disease (SCD) do not feel supported by schools in catching up on absences from class.

Sickle cell is an inherited condition affecting around one in every 2,000 children born in England. The majority are from ethnic minority backgrounds and those with the disease may develop abnormal shaped red blood cells which block blood vessels. This can lead to chronic pain, organ damage and even strokes.

A common assumption has been that raising awareness in teachers about sickle cell is enough. Yet Professor Simon Dyson from De Montfort and the research team found no link between a school knowing a pupil has SCD and the child reporting improved experiences at school.

The study also found that young people are divided on whether others at school should be told they have SCD. Some believe this will lead to help, other pupils feel it will intensify bullying.

"Many schools are failing to keep young people well, and are not supporting them to catch-up any schooling they miss through illness," says Professor Simon Dyson who works in the Unit for the Social Study of Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell at De Montfort.

Professor Dyson and his researchers have developed a policy guide for schools on supporting children with medical conditions. The Department for Education have since used this information in a health and safety leaflet targeting educators.

The guide highlights examples of good practice where schools have adjusted their approach or policies to improve support for young people with SCD. Often this includes providing assistance but without drawing attention to pupils with the condition and not labelling pupils with SCD as 'truants' if they are persistently absent, or not forcing children who are tired or in pain to take exercise.

One school instigated a system of issuing the young person with a laminated card stating that the young person has the right to excuse themselves during lesson in order to go the toilet. Another school has a policy of regular twilight catch-up sessions after school. This learning centre is staffed on a rota basis so that any pupil who has missed a lesson for any reason can catch up in the presence of teachers, which doesn't single out the SCD student.

The impact of SCD on the educational experiences of young people is an under-researched area. Schools do have a duty to ensure the health and safety of pupils under the Health and Safety at Work Act, but previous studies have shown that pupils can miss weeks of schooling a year if schools and colleges do not have the correct support in place.

Professor Dyson comments: "Good practice consists of changing the wider school environment in the background without drawing attention to the young person with sickle cell as different from others. Being seen as different is something young people with sickle cell hate."

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), via AlphaGalileo.

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Adolescent boys among those most affected by Washington state parental military deployment, study suggests

ScienceDaily (July 21, 2011) — In 2007, nearly two million children in the United States had at least one parent serving in the military. Military families and children, in particular, suffer from mental health problems related to long deployments.

A new study from researchers at the University of Washington (UW) concludes that parental military deployment is associated with impaired well-being among adolescents, especially adolescent boys. The study, "Adolescent well-being in Washington state military families," was published online in the American Journal of Public Health.

Lead author Sarah C. Reed, who has a master's degree from the UW School of Public Health, said the findings show that it is time to focus more on the children that are left behind in times of war. "There is a lot of research about veterans and active-duty soldiers, and how they cope or struggle when they return from a deployment," said Reed. "Those studies hit the tip of the iceberg of how families are coping and how their children are doing."

Adolescents are uniquely vulnerable to adverse health effects from parental military deployment. Healthy development, including identifying a sense of self and separation from family, can be interrupted during parents' active military service.

Media exposure and the developmental ability to understand the consequences of war may further disrupt adolescents' adjustment and coping. Teens may also have additional responsibilities at home after a parent's deployment, researchers said.

UW researchers used data from the Washington state 2008 Healthy Youth Survey, administered to more than 10,000 adolescents in 8th, 10th- and 12th grade classrooms. Female 8th graders with parents deployed to combat appear to be at risk of depression and thoughts of suicide, while male counterparts in all grades are at increased risk of impaired well-being in all of the areas examined (low quality of life, binge drinking, drug use and low academic achievement).

National research organizations, including RAND Health and the RAND National Security Research Division, have studied what's known as the "invisible wounds" of war. But Reed and her team said existing research is not enough. "We have to figure out more of what's going on within families and with children, and what's going to be helpful to mitigate the difficult things -- including risky behaviors by adolescents -- that are happening in families," she said.

Reed said that implementing or strengthening school-based programs that target affected adolescents would be a good starting point. Research and support programs also need to be beefed up, based on the research team's analysis. "There seem to be a lot of programs available but they are scattered and hard to navigate," said Reed. "In Washington state, schools have support programs, but they appear to be disconnected. There's a lot of energy in terms of people who would like to help, but a more cohesive effort in reaching out to adolescents and providing services is important."

Reed and her team are working on a follow-up study, analyzing parental military service and adolescent behaviors of school-based physical fighting, weapon carrying and gang membership.

Funding for the study was supported by a grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Co-authors on the study include Janice Bell, UW assistant professor of health services, and Todd Edwards, UW research assistant professor of health services, both in the UW School of Public Health.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Washington, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

Sarah C. Reed, Janice F. Bell, Todd C Edwards. Adolescent Well-Being in Washington State Military Families. American Journal of Public Health, 2011; DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300165

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Prenatal exposure to certain antidepressants may modestly increase risk of autism spectrum disorders, study suggests

ScienceDaily (July 5, 2011) — Prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, especially during the first trimester, is associated with a modest increase the risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder, according to a report published Online First in the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

"The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has increased over recent years," the authors write as background information in the article. "Use of antidepressant medications during pregnancy also shows a secular increase in recent decades, prompting concerns that prenatal exposure may contribute to increased risk of ASD."

To evaluate if prenatal exposure to antidepressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), is associated with an increase in ASD, Lisa A. Croen, Ph.D., of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, and colleagues examined medical records for children drawn from the Childhood Autism Perinatal Study conducted by Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Northern California. The authors included 298 children with ASD (case group) and their mothers, and 1,507 control children and their mothers in the study.

Twenty mothers of children in the case group (6.7 percent) and 50 mothers of children in the control group (3.3 percent) had at least one prescription for an antidepressant in the year prior to the birth of the study child. Of the 20 case mothers who were prescribed antidepressants, 13 (65 percent) were prescribed SSRIs only, two (10 percent) were prescribed an SSRI in combination with another antidepressant and five (25 percent) were prescribed one or more non-SSRI antidepressants only. Of the 50 control mothers who were prescribed an antidepressant, 25 (50 percent) were prescribed SSRIs only, nine (18 percent) were prescribed an SSRI in combination with another antidepressant and 16 (32 percent) were prescribed one or more non-SSRI antidepressants only.

After adjusting for maternal and birth factors, mothers of children with ASD were twice as likely to have at least one antidepressant prescription in the year prior to delivery. When compared with women with no antidepressant prescription during the study period, those with a prescription for a SSRI were more than twice as likely to have a child later diagnosed with ASD. This association was not seen for the small group of women who were prescribed a non-SSRI antidepressant only.

Additionally, after adjustment for a history of depression during the year prior to delivery, SSRI exposure during the first trimester remained significantly associated with risk of ASD, as was a history of SSRI exposure at any point during the year prior to delivery. Conversely, no association was seen between risk of ASD and the indication for treatment (mother having a history of depression or any mental health disorder) for the year prior to delivery.

"Although the number of children exposed prenatally to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in this population was low, results suggest that exposure, especially during the first trimester, may modestly increase the risk of ASD," the authors conclude. "We recommend that our findings be considered as preliminary and treated with caution, pending results from further studies designed to address the very complex question of whether prenatal exposure to SSRIs may be etiologically linked to later diagnoses of ASDs in offspring."

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals.

Journal Reference:

Lisa A. Croen; Judith K. Grether; Cathleen K. Yoshida; Roxana Odouli; Victoria Hendrick. Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy and Childhood Autism Spectrum Disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2011; DOI: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.73

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Spring babies face anorexia risk, study suggests

ScienceDaily (May 5, 2011) — Anorexia nervosa is more common among people born in the spring, a new study led by Oxford University scientists has found.

The researchers writing in the British Journal of Psychiatry say their study -- which is the largest to date -- provides 'clear evidence' of a season-of-birth effect in anorexia.

The research team, led by Dr Lahiru Handunnetthi of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, compared the birth dates of 1,293 patients with anorexia to those of the general population.

They found an excess of anorexia births between March and June, and a deficit from September to October.

Although some previous studies have suggested a link between season of birth and eating disorders, these involved much smaller numbers of patients and did not reach statistical significance.

'We meta-analysed four cohorts of anorexia nervosa patients from the UK, making this the largest ever study to assess the presence of a season-of-birth effect in anorexia,' said Dr Handunnetthi. 'We found that susceptibility to anorexia nervosa is significantly influenced by a person's season of birth, being higher in those people born in the spring and lower in those born in the autumn.'

Dr Handunnetthi added: 'A number of previous studies have found that mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression are more common among those born in the spring -- so this finding in anorexia is perhaps not surprising.

'However, our study only provides evidence of an association. Now we need more research to identify which factors are putting people at particular risk.'

The researchers believe that environmental factors around the time of conception or when the baby is developing in the womb may be responsible.

Dr Handunnetthi explained: 'Seasonal changes in temperature, sunlight exposure and vitamin D levels, maternal nutrition and exposure to infections are all possible risk factors. Identifying these risk factors is important in helping us understand and maybe even prevent illness in future.'

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Oxford.

Journal Reference:

G. Disanto, A. E. Handel, A. E. Para, S. V. Ramagopalan, L. Handunnetthi. Season of birth and anorexia nervosa. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2011; DOI: 10.1192/bjp.bp.110.085944

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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