http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (HealthDay) -- Cognitively normal individuals with a family history of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) may display lower resting state functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) of the brain, and this effect is detectable even in those who do not carry the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele, according to a study published online May 9 in the Annals of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-family-history-alzheimer-affects-functional.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Sat, 26 May 2012 09:20:01 EST news257239110 A new study by researchers at The University of Nottingham has proved that assessing family medical history is a significant tool in helping GPs spot patients at high risk of heart disease and its widespread use could save lives. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-family-history-significant-cardiovascular.html Cardiology Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:14:35 EST news249131665 (Medical Xpress) -- People who are at an increased risk of developing bowel cancer, because they have a family history of the disease, are failing to have adequate screening, a University of Melbourne study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-analysis-australians-bowel-cancer-under-screened.html Cancer Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:20:01 EST news248679883 (Medical Xpress) -- Computer programs can be taught to differentiate between the brain scans of healthy adolescents and those most at risk of developing psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and depression, according to research published yesterday in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The research suggests that it may be possible to design programs that can accurately predict which at-risk adolescents will subsequently develop these disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-individuals-anxiety-mood-disorders.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:52:19 EST news248593901 The amount and quality of sleep you get at night may affect your memory later in life, according to research that was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-affect-memory.html Neuroscience Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:00:12 EST news248448823 The same gene mutations linked to inherited, early-onset Alzheimer's disease have been found in people with the more common late-onset form of the illness. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-genes-linked-early-late-onset-alzheimer.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:00:03 EST news247336642 A study based on more than 87,000 women and 47,000 men in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, looks at whether there is a link between colon cancer and alcohol, and if so at what level of consumption, and the importance of a family history of the disease. A total of 1,801 cases of colon cancer were diagnosed during follow-up from 1980 onwards. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-alcohol-consumption-colon-cancer-people.html Cancer Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:43:57 EST news247146230 Researchers know that adolescents with a family history of alcoholism (FHP) are at risk for developing alcohol use disorders. Some studies have shown that, compared to their peers, FHP adolescents have deficits in behavioral inhibition. A study of the neural substrates of risk-taking in both FHP adolescents and their peers with a negative family history of alcoholism (FHN) has shown that FHP youth demonstrated atypical brain activity while completing the same task as the FHN youth. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-family-history-alcoholism-adolescent-brains.html Health Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:00:02 EST news245930022 After a 20-year quest to find a genetic driver for prostate cancer that strikes men at younger ages and runs in families, researchers have identified a rare, inherited mutation linked to a significantly higher risk of the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-major-genetic-mutation-hereditary-prostate.html Cancer Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:00:40 EST news245509616 Experiencing a psychiatric episode within the first 30 days post-partum appears to be associated with an increased risk of developing bipolar affective disorder, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-post-partum-psychiatric-episodes-linked-bipolar.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:56:59 EST news242325737 Women in their 40s with no family history of breast cancer are just as likely to develop invasive breast cancer as are women with a family history of the disease, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). These findings indicate that women in this age group would benefit from annual screening mammography. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-mammography-screening.html Cancer Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:47:19 EST news241753625 Urban legend warns shoveling snow causes heart attacks, and the legend seems all too accurate, especially for male wintery excavators with a family history of premature cardiovascular disease. However, until recently this warning was based on anecdotal reports. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-scoop-dangers-shoveling.html Cardiology Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:22:58 EST news241269764 Adding to research linking alcohol to breast cancer risk, a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that adolescent girls with a family history of breast disease — either cancer or the benign lesions that can become cancer – have a higher risk of developing benign breast disease as young women than other girls. And unlike girls without a family history, this already-elevated risk rises with increasing alcohol consumption. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-girls-family-history-breast-disease.html Cancer Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:12:25 EST news240466335 If you have psoriasis or a family history of psoriasis and you are experiencing joint pain and swelling, you could have psoriatic arthritis, a serious disease that may lead to joint destruction and disability. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-people-psoriasis-undiagnosed-psoriatic-arthritis.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:40:45 EST news237652835 Early detection and diagnosis of open angle glaucoma important so that treatment can be used in the early stages of the disease developing to prevent or avoid further vision loss. Writing in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, researchers in the US have analyzed and ranked the various risk factors for open angle glaucoma so that patients can be screened at an earlier stage if they are more likely to develop the condition. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-glaucoma.html Medical research Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:13:16 EST news237114778 Approximately 10-20 percent of prostate cancer patients have a family history of the disease. There are three major factors that are used to evaluate the extent and aggressiveness of prostate cancer, help make treatment decisions, and estimate prognosis: the Prostate Specific Antigen Level (PSA), Gleason score (GS) from the biopsy, and the digital rectal exam findings (DRE). However, men with a family history of prostate cancer have often been feared to have a more aggressive form of the disease not otherwise represented by these three factors and therefore are sometimes urged to undergo more aggressive treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-aggressive-treatment-men-family-history.html Cancer Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:54:32 EST news237041665 Women with a strong family history of breast cancer, but no genetic link, are not consistent in how they perceive their risk or in their efforts to manage the risk, leading some women to not adequately access breast cancer services, a University of Melbourne study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-women-strong-family-history-breast.html Cancer Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:35:20 EST news236187257 In Leigh syndrome, infants are born apparently healthy only to develop movement and breathing disorders that worsen over time, often leading to death by the age of 3. The problem is that the mitochondria responsible for powering their cells can't keep up with the demand for energy in their developing brains. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-next-gen-dna-sequence-rare-devastating.html Medical research Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:35:02 EST news234531285 In a new study published in Nature Genetics researchers say that women who possess a fault in a gene named RAD51D have a greater risk of developing ovarian cancer than women who do not have this fault and tests are expected to be available within the next few years for those at highest risk, according to Cancer Research UK. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-faulty-gene-ovarian-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 09 Aug 2011 06:00:01 EST news232073760 A family history of pink disease is a significant risk factor for developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD), new research from Swinburne University of Technology has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-australian-autism.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 09 Aug 2011 04:33:34 EST news232083186 People are significantly more likely to inherit a predisposition to heart attack than to stroke, according to research reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, an American Heart Association journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-genes-greater-role-heart.html Cardiology Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:00:18 EST news230886140 A new study by researchers at Drexel University's School of Public Health suggests that abuse of prescription painkillers may be an important gateway to the use of injected drugs such as heroin, among people with a history of using both types of drugs. The study, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, explores factors surrounding young injection drug users' initiation into the misuse of opioid drugs. Common factors identified in this group included a family history of drug misuse and receiving prescriptions for opioid drugs in the past. The results support a need for efforts to prevent misuse of prescription drugs, particularly during adolescence. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-drexel-misuse-pain-medication-pathway.html Medications Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:33:59 EST news230553223 In an analysis to examine how often throughout adulthood clinically significant changes occur in a patient's family history of cancer, researchers found substantial changes in family history of colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer between the ages of 30 and 50 years, which would result in recommendations for earlier or more intense cancer screening, according to a study in the July 13 issue of JAMA. The authors suggest that a patient's family history of cancer be updated at least every 5 to 10 years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-family-history-cancer-earlier-intense.html Cancer Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:42:22 EST news229707734 Siblings of people with autism show a similar pattern of brain activity to that seen in people with autism when looking at emotional facial expressions. The University of Cambridge researchers identified the reduced activity in a part of the brain associated with empathy and argue it may be a 'biomarker' for a familial risk of autism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-biomarker-autism.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:29:22 EST news229685336 When a person has a family history of cancer, their worry about developing the disease may lead to them refusing to have preventive tests. Advice from genetic counselling units reduces their anxiety but, until now, nobody knew how much. Now, a scientific team has validated the 'Escala de Preocupación por el Cáncer - EPC' (equivalent of the Cancer Worry Scale), the first of its kind in the Spanish language, in order to evaluate it. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-scale-genetic-tackling-cancer.html Cancer Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:17:14 EST news226747028 Doctors often rely on a patient's knowledge of family medical history to estimate his or her risk of cancer. However, patient reports of family cancer history are not highly accurate, according to a study appearing May 11th online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-patient-relatives-cancer-history-accurate.html Cancer Wed, 11 May 2011 16:00:02 EST news224339151 Recently published research shows that coffee drinkers enjoy not only the taste of their coffee but also a reduced risk of cancer with their cuppa. More detailed research published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research shows that drinking coffee specifically reduces the risk of antiestrogen-resistant estrogen-receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-coffee-breast-cancer.html Cancer Wed, 11 May 2011 03:32:02 EST news224303484 A landmark study by scientists at Wayne State University published in the May 6, 2011, issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, the most prestigious journal in the field, has revealed a new way to distinguish children with major depressive disorder (MDD) from not only normal children, but also from children with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-major-depressive-disorder-children.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 10 May 2011 11:54:25 EST news224247226