http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The gap between life expectancy in patients with a mental illness and the general population has widened since 1985 and efforts to reduce this gap should focus on improving physical health, suggest researchers in a paper published today on BMJ. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-life-gap-widens-mental-illness.html Health Tue, 21 May 2013 18:30:05 EST news288376763 Men who are heavy drinkers and homeless for long periods of time have 400 times the number of head injuries as the general population, according to a new study by researchers who said they were shocked by their findings. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-statistics-injuries-people-homeless.html Health Thu, 16 May 2013 13:12:18 EST news287928725 (Medical Xpress)—Those diagnosed with schizophrenia are less likely than the general population to have a recorded diagnosis of heart disease, a new report published in BMJ Open has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-schizophrenia-heart-disease-diagnosis.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:30:01 EST news285837107 Although most survivors of melanoma take precautions to protect their skin from the sun and further occurrences of cancer, data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, held in Washington, D.C., April 6-10, revealed that more than a quarter do not use sunscreen when outside for more than an hour, and more than 2 percent still use tanning beds. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-melanoma-survivors-tanning-beds-sunscreen.html Cancer Tue, 09 Apr 2013 07:40:03 EST news284710853 The relationship between obesity and polycystic ovary syndrome may be exaggerated, likely because the women who actively seek care for the condition tend to be heavier than those identified through screening of the general population, researchers report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-link-obesity-polycystic-ovary-syndrome.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:52:47 EST news284637160 (HealthDay)—Compared to the general population, patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) miss more work days, and patients who undergo colectomy do not fully restore work ability, according to research published in the March issue of Gastroenterology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-burden-ulcerative-colitis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:10:01 EST news284039041 A three-year study into the extent of premature death in people with learning disabilities has found that those with learning disabilities are more likely to have a premature death compared with individuals in the general population. The findings, published in a Department of Health report, have made a series of recommendations aimed at improving the quality of healthcare that people with learning disabilities receive. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-people-disabilities-premature-death-population.html Health Wed, 20 Mar 2013 08:00:02 EST news282983236 In an examination of long-term mortality after stroke, adults 50 years of age and younger who experienced a stroke had a significantly higher risk of death in the following 20 years compared with the general population, according to a study in the March 20 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-adults-age-higher-death-long-term.html Cardiology Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:00:14 EST news282927382 Ten years after stroke caused by a ruptured aneurysm of the brain, surviving patients have persistent difficulties in several areas affecting quality of life, reports a study in the March issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-ruptured-aneurysm-impact-quality-life.html Surgery Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:05:48 EST news282308740 In a study to be presented on February 14 at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting, in San Francisco, California, researchers will present findings showing perinatal outcomes of frozen/thawed embryo replacement (FER) have better outcomes compared to fresh in vitro fertilization (IVF), but worse outcomes compared to the non-IVF general population. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-outcome-frozen-embryo-ivf.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:37:49 EST news279801457 A Finnish study shows that patients who have experienced subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) have a highly increased risk of death due to a stroke or cerebral haemorrhage, and have double the mortality rate of the general population. The researchers state that considerably more attention should be paid to risk factors in the life of SAH survivors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-high-blood-pressure-cholesterol-fatal.html Neuroscience Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:13:38 EST news277370010 Elevated levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammatory disease, appear to be associated with increased risk of psychological distress and depression in the general population of adults in Denmark, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, a JAMA Network publication. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-elevated-c-reactive-protein-psychological-distress.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:00:01 EST news275576704 (HealthDay)—For HIV-infected patients, despite combined antiretroviral treatment (cART), the risk of anal cancer is still much higher than in the general population, according to a study published in the Dec. 10 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-cart-anal-cancer-high-hiv-infected.html HIV & AIDS Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:00:03 EST news274633924 Vision insurance for working-age adults appears to be associated with having eye care visits and reporting better vision, compared with individuals without insurance, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Ophthalmology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-vision-eye-care.html Ophthalmology Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:00:05 EST news274370391 (Medical Xpress)—Those who live and die behind prison walls don't usually get much public attention. Incarceration is, after all, meant to remove criminals from society. But contagious and potentially deadly diseases can't be locked and left in a penitentiary, especially when infected inmates are eventually released. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-curbing-tb-disease-rampant.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 28 Nov 2012 09:35:53 EST news273317745 New Johns Hopkins research showing a more than four-fold increase in the incidence of breast cancer in women with neurofibromatosis-1 (NF1) adds to growing evidence that women with this rare genetic disorder may benefit from early breast cancer screening with mammograms beginning at age 40, and manual breast exams as early as adolescence. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-gene-tumor-disorder-linked-breast.html Cancer Tue, 27 Nov 2012 04:49:49 EST news273214178 While researchers and clinicians know that the mortality rates among alcohol dependent (AD) individuals are high, most of that knowledge is based on studies of clinical populations. A new study is the first to examine excess mortality and its predictors among AD individuals in the general population throughout a 14-year span, finding that annualized death rates were 4.6-fold higher for AD females and 1.9-fold higher for AD males when compared to the general population, indicating that females with AD merit particular attention. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-alcohol-shorten-life-women.html Addiction Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:00:01 EST news269615024 A study that included more than 45,000 residents of Sweden with rheumatoid arthritis finds that individuals with this disease had an associated higher risk of venous thromboembolism (a blood clot that forms within a vein), and that this elevated risk was stable for 10 years after the time of diagnosis, according to a study in the October 3 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-patients-rheumatoid-arthritis-blood-clots.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:00:02 EST news268404270 Deaths by suicide among mental health patients treated at home have reached 150 to 200 a year in England, latest national figures reveal – but suicides among patients on mental health wards continue to fall. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-safety-home-treatment-mental-health.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 11 Jul 2012 19:00:01 EST news261244854 New research reveals that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients do not receive fewer cancer screening tests than the general population. Results of the study, funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), found that RA and non-RA patients receive routine screening for breast, cervical, and colon cancer at similar rates. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-cancer-screening-rheumatoid-arthritis.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:00:02 EST news261073639 The development of a highly accurate, blood-based pancreatic adenocarcinoma screen that would be accurate enough to test the general population for this deadly disease may not be far out of reach, according to data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Pancreatic Cancer: Progress and Challenges conference, held here June 18-21, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-biomarker-panel-screen-pancreatic-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:30:15 EST news259332637 According to a study presented today at EULAR 2012, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who are prescribed biologic treatments have a significantly lower mortality risk (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 0.61) than those just treated with traditional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs).The study also found the mortality was similar irrespective of the method of action of biologics (anti-tumour necrosis factor drugs [anti-TNFs] or rituximab). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-disease-biologic-treatment-life-ra.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Thu, 07 Jun 2012 08:10:01 EST news258273747 Survivors of childhood cancers are at an increased risk of another battle with cancer later in life, according to new research published online June 4 by the Annals of Internal Medicine. In the largest study to date of risk for gastrointestinal (GI) cancers among people first diagnosed with cancer before the age of 21, researchers found that childhood cancer survivors develop these malignancies at a rate nearly five times that of the general population. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-high-gastrointestinal-cancers-childhood-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:00:01 EST news258044746 What goes bump in the night? In many U.S. households: people. That's according to new Stanford University School of Medicine research, which found that about 3.6 percent of U.S. adults are prone to sleepwalking. The work also showed an association between nocturnal wanderings and certain psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-sleepwalking-prevalent-adults-previously.html Neuroscience Mon, 14 May 2012 16:00:03 EST news256228005 Patients who have had metal-on-metal hip replacements are no more likely to develop cancer in the first seven years after surgery than the general population, although a longer-term study is required, a study published in the British Medical Journal today claims. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-metal-on-metal-hip-patients-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:30:02 EST news252689459 Workers exposed to asbestos as part of their job are at significantly greater risk of heart disease and stroke than the general population, finds research published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-asbestos-workers-significantly-heart-diseasestrokes.html Cardiology Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:30:01 EST news252590763 (HealthDay) -- Male veterans with multiple sclerosis (MS) have an increased prevalence of chronic diseases compared with the general population and with veterans without MS, according to a study published online Feb. 9 in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Preventing Chronic Disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-vets-ms-higher-prevalence-chronic.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Sat, 17 Mar 2012 06:12:19 EST news251183523 People with rheumatoid arthritis are at a greater risk of irregular heart rhythm (known as atrial fibrillation) and stroke compared with the general population, finds a study published in the British Medical Journal today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-rheumatoid-arthritis-linked-irregular-heart.html Inflammatory disorders Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:30:02 EST news250446117 A new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and collaborators at various institutions, presented at the 2011 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, shows that a novel, non-invasive measurement of arterial wave reflections may be able to predict who is most at risk for heart failure. The authors presented data from an ancillary study of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-noninvasive-strong-predictor-heart-failure.html Cardiology Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:02:10 EST news240508922 In the largest study of its kind to date, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have shown that women related to a patient with a breast cancer caused by a hereditary mutation -- but who don't have the mutation themselves -- have no higher risk of getting cancer than relatives of patients with other types of breast cancer. The multinational, population-based study involving more than 3,000 families settles a controversy that arose four years ago when a paper hinted that a familial BRCA mutation in and of itself was a risk factor. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-higher-breast-cancer-women-dont.html Cancer Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:00:03 EST news239289107