http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Veterans are almost twice as likely as the general public to have chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and heart failure. Therefore, veterans may require more assistance from informal caregivers, especially as outpatient treatment becomes more common. A University of Missouri researcher evaluated strain and satisfaction among informal caregivers of veterans with chronic illnesses. The findings show that more than one third of veterans' caregivers report high levels of strain as a result of taking care of their relatives; yet, on average, caregivers also report being satisfied with their caregiving responsibilities. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-caregivers-veterans-chronic-illnesses-stressed.html Health Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:00:01 EST news250428895 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans with mental health diagnoses, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder, are more likely to receive prescription opioid medications for pain-related conditions, have higher-risk opioid use patterns and increased adverse clinical outcomes associated with opioid use than veterans with no mental health diagnoses, according to a study in the March 7 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-war-veterans-mental-health-prescription.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:00:05 EST news250268714 A team of academic researchers has identified the intracellular mechanisms regulated by vitamin D3 that may help the body clear the brain of amyloid beta, the main component of plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-scientists-vitamin-d-amyloid-plaques.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:01:19 EST news250261269 Economic setbacks, work pressures and the annoyances of daily life – such as long lines and rush-hour traffic – can cause otherwise calm people to snap and lose their cool. But when anger begins to affect personal relationships, on-the-job performance and physical health, it’s time for an intervention. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-uncontrolled-anger-soldier-enemy.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:22:58 EST news249650569 While the Affordable Care Act will expand health insurance coverage for low-income persons through Medicaid and state health-insurance exchanges, including much-needed care for 1.8 million uninsured veterans in the U.S., the new insurance coverage option also may have a number of unintended negative effects on health care for veterans, said Kenneth W. Kizer, director of the Institute for Population Health Improvement at UC Davis Health System. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-impact-health-veterans.html Health Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:54:07 EST news249209612 (Medical Xpress) -- Veterans Affairs hospitals screen elderly men with limited life expectancies for prostate cancer at surprisingly high rates, even though guidelines recommend against such screening, according to a study led by a physician at the UCSF-affiliated San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-prostate-cancer-screenings-va-hospitals.html Cancer Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:10:12 EST news245495402 Although personal health records are now securely accessible online to a large and growing number of individuals, little research has been conducted on opinions about their ease of use. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-personal-health-usable.html Health Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:58:24 EST news244983491 (Medical Xpress) -- In a new study, University of Michigan researchers identified brain circuits in rats that are responsible for the return of fear after it has been suppressed behaviorally. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-insight-relapse-trauma.html Neuroscience Tue, 29 Nov 2011 04:26:05 EST news241763149 Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are teaming up for a research project aimed at advancing the treatment of military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-horizon-patients-post-traumatic-stress-disorder.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:34:07 EST news240842038 College students who have served in the U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely than their non-veteran peers to use tobacco, drink in excess and engage in other behaviors that endanger their health and safety, according to a study that appeared in the latest issue of American Journal of Health Promotion. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-veterans-college-engage-riskier-health.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:10:01 EST news239273164 Treating U.S. veterans with mental illness and substance use disorders is more expensive than caring for veterans with other medical conditions, costing more than $12 billion in 2007, according to a new RAND Corporation study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-mentally-ill-veterans-good-health.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:22:41 EST news238260151 Gulf War Illness (GWI) -- the chronic health condition that affects about one in four military veterans of the 1991 Gulf War -- appears to be the result of several factors, which differed in importance depending upon the locations where veterans served during the war, according to a Baylor University study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-gulf-war-illness-complex-vary.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 19 Sep 2011 03:21:46 EST news235620989 Thirty-one percent of women veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder reported military sexual trauma (MST), in contrast to one percent of men with PTSD, according to a study led by Shira Maguen, PhD, a psychologist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-iraqafghanistan-women-veterans-ptsd-military.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:22:18 EST news235311702 The Allen Institute for Brain Science announced today the discovery of a new class of cells in the spinal cord that act like neural stem cells, offering a fresh avenue in the search for therapies to treat spinal cord injury and disease. The published collaborative study, authored by scientists from the University of British Columbia, the Allen Institute for Brain Science and The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University and titled "Adult Spinal Cord Radial Glia Display a Unique Progenitor Phenotype," appears in the open access journal PLoS One. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-class-stem-cell-like-cells-possibility.html Medical research Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:45:24 EST news235305621 Blood flow abnormalities found in the brains of veterans with Gulf War illness have persisted 20 years after the war, and in some cases have gotten worse, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-chronic-abnormal-brain-blood-gulf.html Medical research Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:04:41 EST news235101868 Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures may go undiagnosed for much longer in veterans compared to civilians, according to a new study published in the September 6, 2011, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. This type of seizure is different from seizures related to epilepsy and is thought to have a psychological origin. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-non-epileptic-seizures-misdiagnosed-longer-veterans.html Neuroscience Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:00:01 EST news234449165 Post-9/11 disabled veterans furthered their education, improved employment prospects and continued to serve their community through participating in The Mission Continues’ Fellowship Program, finds a new study by the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-disabled-veterans-civic.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:42:36 EST news232879327 Nearly half of college students who are U.S. military veterans reported thinking of suicide and 20 percent said they had planned to kill themselves, rates significantly higher than among college students in general, according to a study presented at the American Psychological Association's 119th Annual Convention. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-suicide-high-war-veterans-college.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:40:01 EST news231679753 The spoils of war for returning veterans may include addictions, injury and the constant images of horrific events they witnessed. Now a University of Houston joint study funded by the Veterans Health Administration Rehabilitation Research and Development service looks to address these issues through the use of virtual reality. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-vets-alcohol-abuse-virtual-reality.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:41:15 EST news230906464 Researchers affiliated with Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that risk factors for post-traumatic stress symptomatology (PTSS) among Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)/Operational Iraqi Freedom (OIF) male veterans were relatively similar to what was observed in a prior group of Vietnam veterans. The findings, which currently appear online in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, suggest there are key pathways through which risk factors contribute to PTSS across different male veteran cohorts. In addition, the researchers also identified a number of novel mechanisms of risk for OEF/OIF female veterans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-factor-pathways-ptss-female-male.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:46:11 EST news230813142 (Medical Xpress) -- An estimated 18 American military veterans take their own lives every day -- thousands each year -- and those numbers are steadily increasing. Even after weathering the stresses of military life and the terrors of combat, these soldiers find themselves overwhelmed by the transition back into civilian life. Many have already survived one suicide attempt, but never received the extra help and support they needed, with tragic results. A team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues found that veterans who are repeat suicide attempters suffer significantly greater mortality rates due to suicide compared to both military and civilian peers. The research was published this month in BMC Public Health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-war-veterans-suicide.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:06:48 EST news228567994 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who visited a VA integrated care clinic were much more likely to undergo initial mental health and social work evaluations than veterans who visited a standard VA primary care clinic, according to a study led by a San Francisco VA Medical Center researcher. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-one-stop-clinic-ups-mental-health.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:27:13 EST news226938411 (Medical Xpress) -- New research by Dr. Ramin Ebrahimi and his team from the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Administration Medical Center was published in The American Journal of Cardiology and shows a link between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a higher risk of heart disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-ptsd-linked-heart-disease.html Cardiology Wed, 01 Jun 2011 06:20:01 EST news226123377 Wealth, population size, race and age associate with the supply of hospice care available in a county, according to a study published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management this month. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-hospice-strongly-local-area-median.html Health Mon, 09 May 2011 13:09:52 EST news224165354 (PhysOrg.com) -- A Montana State University Native American Studies professor has launched a new Web site that he hopes will help veterans cope with post-traumatic stress disorder through forums that discuss ceremonies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-web-site-aid-veterans-ptsd.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:15:41 EST news221829262