News

A new study suggests that pregabalin shows significantly greater improvements in pain-related interference of sleep relative to usual care in patients with chronic low back pain with accompanying neuropathic pain (CLBP-NeP).

For patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), balneotherapy (mineral baths) combined with physical therapy may be more effective than physical therapy alone.

Cardiovascular disease is the most common comorbidity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the reason behind it may have finally been identified.

In 2014, the fracture risk algorithm FRAX celebrated its 20-year anniversary. Developed by a World Health Organization (WHO) study group in 1994, FRAX is a freely available diagnostic tool used to evaluate the 10-year probability of bone fracture risk, mostly for patients with osteoporosis. It is a part of many national health guidelines worldwide.

A small Italian study found no evidence that use of anti-TNF-alpha agents during pregnancy affects the health or development of children in their first 2 years of life.

New research suggests that the Cox maze IV ablation procedure (CMP-IV) leads to better long-term outcomes than catheter-based ablation procedures in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Patients with the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gating mutation G551D have insufficient ion transport due to reduced channel-open probability. New information suggests that increased ion transport reduces disease burden in the pancreas, which prevents cystic fibrosis patients from digesting food properly and leads to exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in up to 90% of all cases.

Australian research indicates that ultra-brief pulse stimulation is nearly as effective as standard electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for the treatment of severe depression, but with substantially fewer cognitive side effects.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be able to be treated with a newly validated drug target.

In a recent study, researchers assessed seven groups of mice that were given various antibiotics and then exposed to C. diff spores. Using advanced genetic analysis, the team determined which bacteria survived the antibiotic challenge, as well as what factors allowed C. diff to effectively infect the mice.

Safe, effective treatments for schizophrenia are well-established in the United States and worldwide, with several second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) approved for use. But earlier schizophrenia studies have shown that several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) – the genetic variations that can underlie differences in susceptibility to disease – are overexpressed in Caucasian patients with schizophrenia but not in their Chinese counterparts, and vice versa.

Women giving birth through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) were reported more likely to experience the after-effects of long-term gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is challenging to diagnose and treat. As yet, there are no drugs currently licensed for BPD treatment. In fact, guidance from England's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends that pharmacologic therapy not be used for patients with BPD at all. This is potentially troubling, because those patients typically experience rapid and extreme changes in mood, poor social functioning and have high rates of suicidal behavior.

For some people their best time to work is when others are usually asleep. For these patients and others with sleep disorders finding the right treatment can be difficult, especially when it comes to medications.

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is one of the pain conditions that has remained fairly mysterious, but a new, effective treatment may be on the horizon. It is known that CRPS most often develops following trauma, however, and evidence suggests a maladaptive response to nervous system damage involving immune and inflammatory pathways as well as abnormalities in both peripheral and central processing of afferent inputs. No single therapy – including pharmacologic therapy – wholly addresses the condition.

It is well-known that patients with hepatitis C face a higher risk of liver complications; however, a new study discovered that the heart could also be in trouble.

Self-management for chronic or long-term conditions such as pain, diabetes, asthma, or arthritis is now a common part of long-term care. The same is not true for depression. At least, not yet. As clinicians learn more about depression, it has ceased to be viewed alongside other acute conditions and is now often thought of as chronic or long-term. Research shows that more than half of all people will have at least one further depressive episode after their first.

Patients with multiple sclerosis may have an increased risk of earlier death, a study in Neurology found.

Rheumatoid arthritis therapy that focuses on early and more intensive treatment produces DMARD-free sustained remission, according to findings from researchers at the Karolinska Institutet.

Inflammation may play an important role in patients with schizophrenia, new research determined, which could lead to improved treatments.

A common treatment for traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause noteworthy adverse effects, so researchers analyzed if the benefits outweigh the potential risks.

The causes and pathogenesis of schizophrenia are still poorly understood, but new research aimed to find answers by looking at childhood milestones.

Science and medicine have licked some of the nastiest afflictions the world has ever seen. But if a child has eczema, should he or she drink milk? The answer is still unknown.

The current nasal spray flu vaccine on the market is not approved for all age groups – so what's another option for those excluded individuals besides the flu shot? Researchers may have found a way to broaden the range on the nasal spray.

As the population ages and medicine continues to advance, people are living longer and healthier; but they are also taking more medications for more medical conditions. Those medications can cause drug-drug interactions that lead to adverse drug reactions (ADR). Studies have shown that the majority of medication errors happen at the stage of prescription.

A growing term in the healthcare field is excessive sleepiness. What does it mean and how can it affect a patient's life are explained in this segment of our interview with Paul Doghramji, MD.

Primary care physicians see a wide range of patients with any number of symptoms. In light of this it can be easy for simple things like sleep disorders to slip through the cracks which can be harmful to the patient's overall health.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the most common chronic liver disease reported in the United States. Some researchers have hypothesized that TNF-α, as a mediator of inflammation, might be a therapeutic target for NAFLD since inflammation seems to be a component of its etiology.

Japanese research suggests that influenza vaccination using a dissolving microneedle patch made of hyaluronic acid appears to be promising for practical use as an easy and effective method to replace conventional injection systems.

With public health concerns surrounding opioid use, a recent study looked at the potential for the opioid analgesic buprenorphine to counteract some of these concerns.