July 15, 2015 - Overdoses of opioid pain medications frequently occur in people who aren't chronic users with high prescribed opioid doses--the groups targeted by current opioid prescribing guidelines, reports a study in the August issue of Medical Care. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer. "It may be prudent to revise guidelines to also address opioid poisonings occurring at relatively low prescribed doses and with acute and intermittent opioid use, in addition to chronic, high-dose use," comments lead author Deborah Fulton-Kehoe, PhD, a research scientist in ...

CHICAGO --- You can fake a smile, but your phone knows the truth. Depression can be detected from your smartphone sensor data by tracking the number of minutes you use the phone and your daily geographical locations, reports a small Northwestern Medicine study. The more time you spend using your phone, the more likely you are depressed. The average daily usage for depressed individuals was about 68 minutes, while for non-depressed individuals it was about 17 minutes. Spending most of your time at home and most of your time in fewer locations -- as measured by GPS ...

Substantial improvements in the care and survival of older people with hip fracture in England have followed the introduction of a collaborative national initiative to tackle the issue, according to a new study published in the Medical Care journal. Hip fracture is the most common serious injury of older people. In the UK there are around 70,000 cases per year (in people aged 60 years and older), while in the US there are approximately 250,000 cases (in people aged 65 years and older). The UK National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD) is a clinician-led audit initiative ...

Epidural electrostimulation is a medical technique that has been used for several years now to help patients affected by paralysis due to a spinal cord injury. It involves implanting electrodes over the dorsal nerve roots (which convey incoming "sensory" inputs) of the spinal cord below the level of the trauma and applying electrical stimuli of varying intensity and frequency. This technique, which produces or helps produce activation patterns of the motor nerves (ventral, outgoing) has shown promising results, and the scientists hope that one day it will be able to help ...

Oxford, July 15, 2015 - A recent study, published in the International Journal of Nursing Studies, reveals a set of ten low-cost interventions that can increase safety on psychiatric wards. This Safewards Model reduces aggression, self-harm and other risky behaviours by 15% and reduces coercive control, such as restraint, by 24%. The study stems from a 20-year research program led by Professor of Psychiatric Nursing, Len Bowers, at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London. The study reveals that, by using a set of ten small, low ...

UK investment in pneumonia research is lacking when compared to spending on influenza and tuberculosis, according to a new study by the University of Southampton and University College London (UCL). By calculating the amount spent on researching respiratory infections and their mortality rates, the study authors were able to assess UK public and charitable sector investment against the global burden of the diseases. Published in EBioMedicine the study found that while £484.21 per death was invested in influenza research, less than a tenth of that figure (£43.08) ...

Findings, published today [15 Jul] in Nature Communications, reveal the extent a mutation associated with autism and epilepsy plays in impairing a biochemical process in the brain. The study, led by University of Bristol researchers, could provide a new target for treating neurological disorders. The brain contains billions of nerve cells which communicate via the release of chemicals at connections called synapses. Each nerve cell can have thousands of synaptic connections to hundreds of other nerve cells. The protein Synapsin 1a plays a key role in regulating how synapses ...

Spinal cord injuries cause serious functional deficits, including paraplegia or tetraplegia, depending on the scale of the injury. This is due to degeneration of the spinal pathways that carry nerve signals from the brain to the various parts of the body, and vice versa, leading to loss of mobility and sensitivity below the injury. An international team of scientists coordinated by Rubèn López Vales, of the Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the UAB Institute of Neuroscience, and the Centre ...

Academies in some of the most socio-economically deprived areas of England are proving to be successful in raising academic achievement and aspirations among pupils, according to a new report. Improved pupil behaviour and a greater level of engagement in learning, sharper focus on continued professional development for staff, and a more entrepreneurial style of leadership, often from a new head appointed at the time of transition, were all found to be characteristics of those studied in the research. Led by education experts at Plymouth University and the Cornwall College ...

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common age-related degenerative joint concerns. Although articular cartilage degradation is its main feature, this disease induces whole-joint damage characterized by synovitis, bone remodelling and osteophyte formation. Regarding bone, Yohann Wittrant, a researcher at the Human Nutrition Unit (INRA -France), has recently reported that stimulation of the orphan receptor GPR40, a fatty acid-activated receptor, preserved bone mass. Dietary fatty acids were described to improve joint function and reduce pain in OA patients and to decrease ...

Marine litter can undermine the psychological benefits of coastal environments, a study has shown. The beneficial effects of the blue environment to human health and well-being are well documented, but there has been little research into how the growing global issue of marine litter might negate them. To measure this, Plymouth University secured funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to assess public reaction to the differing conditions of coastlines. Participants were shown images of clean ...

Limiting warming to any level requires CO2 emissions to be kept to within a certain limit known as a carbon budget. Can reducing shorter-lived climate forcers influence the size of this budget? A new IIASA study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters analyzes the impact of short-lived air pollutant and greenhouse gas reductions on carbon budgets compatible with the 2°C climate target. Short-lived greenhouse gases and atmospheric pollutants--including methane, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), black carbon or soot, and sulfates-- are emitted by human activities ...

Amsterdam, July 15, 2015 - People who depend on their relationship to make them feel good about themselves are more likely to drown their sorrows if they believe their partner is cheating, suggests new research. The study, published in Addictive Behaviors, links romantic jealousy, relationship-dependent self-esteem and alcohol problems for the first time. The authors of the study, from the University of Houston, US, say understanding the link between these three factors could help identify people at risk of alcoholism more quickly. Excessive alcohol use is the third ...

Recent years have seen an unprecedented growth in number and availability of new synthetic psychoactive drugs in the US and worldwide. In 2014, 101 new psychoactive drugs were identified, worldwide. Such drugs are often sold as "legal" highs or "research chemicals" over the internet or in head shops. Among these new drugs, "bath salts" appear to be one of the more commonly used in the US. "Bath salt" use has been associated with numerous adverse cardiac, psychiatric, neurological, gastrointestinal and pulmonary outcomes. In 2011, the use of bath salts was responsible for ...

Viruses, not bacteria, are the most commonly detected respiratory pathogens in U.S. adults hospitalized with pneumonia, according to a New England Journal of Medicine study released today and conducted by researchers at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and hospitals in Chicago and Nashville, including Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The findings highlight a need for more sensitive rapid diagnostic tests to identify pneumonia pathogens and target appropriate treatments when considering that neither viruses nor bacteria were detected in 62 percent ...

Many an injury will heal, but the damaged spinal cord is notoriously recalcitrant. There's new hope on the horizon, though. A team of researchers led by the University of South Carolina's Jeff Twiss just reported an innate repair mechanism in central nervous system axons that might be harnessed to regenerate nerves after brain or spinal cord injuries. Twiss, a professor of biological sciences and the endowed SmartState chair of the Center for Childhood Neurotherapeutics, and graduate student Ashley Kalinski are building on breakthroughs that they and others have reported ...

If you can't tell a smile from a scowl, you're probably not getting enough sleep. "Recognizing the emotional expressions of someone else changes everything about whether or not you decide to interact with them, and in return, whether they interact with you," said study senior author Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley. The findings were published today in the Journal of Neuroscience. "These findings are especially worrying considering that two-thirds of people in the developed nations fail to get sufficient sleep," Walker added. Indeed, ...

University of Adelaide researchers have shown that intelligence in animal species can be estimated by the size of the holes in the skull through which the arteries pass. Published online ahead of print in the Journal of Experimental Biology, the researchers in the School of Biological Sciences show that the connection between intelligence and hole size stems from brain activity being related to brain metabolic rate. "A human brain contains nearly 100 billion nerve cells with connections measured in the trillions," says project leader, Professor Emeritus Roger Seymour. ...

An international team of researchers, including investigators from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), has identified a gene that underlies healthy information processing -- a first step on a complicated road to understand cognitive aging and age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease. The study, published online and expected to come out this fall in a print edition of the journal Molecular Psychiatry, is one of the the largest genetics study to date to link a specific genetic mutation and information processing speed. "It is well known that ...

Special efforts should be made to identify and treat depression and urinary incontinence in postmenopausal women with vaginal symptoms, according to UC San Francisco researchers, as these two common conditions not only tend to co-exist with vaginal symptoms but also may complicate the impact of these symptoms on women's daily activities and quality of life. The study appears online on July 15, 2015, in Menopause and will be featured in the January 2016 print edition. "Our findings suggest that depression and urinary incontinence may magnify the effects of vaginal symptoms ...

Hydrogen fuel cells promise clean cars that emit only water. Several major car manufacturers have recently announced their investment to increase the availability of fueling stations, while others are rolling out new models and prototypes. However, challenges remain, including the chemistry to produce and use hydrogen and oxygen gas efficiently. Today, in ACS Central Science, two research teams report advances on chemical reactions essential to fuel-cell technology in separate papers. Hydrogen (H2) fuel cells react H2 and oxygen (O2) gases to produce energy. For that ...

The perceived trustworthiness of an inmate's face may determine the severity of the sentence he receives, according to new research using photos and sentencing data for inmates in the state of Florida. The research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveals that inmates whose faces were rated as low in trustworthiness by independent observers were more likely to have received the death sentence than inmates whose faces were perceived as more trustworthy, even when the inmates were later exonerated of the crime. "The ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Research has suggested yellow perch grow more rapidly during the short winters resulting from climate change, but a new study shows warmer water temperatures can lead to the production of less hardy eggs and larvae that have trouble surviving these early stages of life in Lake Erie. The research also showed that yellow perch don't adjust spawning to match earlier spring-like temperatures. This poses a problem if the hatchlings' main food source, zooplankton, does make a temperature-based adjustment because supplies may be low by the time larvae are ready ...

Species invasions come at a high cost. In the United States, the annual cost to the economy tops $100 billion a year and invasive plant infestations affect 100 million acres. While it's tempting to focus attention on headline-grabbing cases of exceptionally fecund flora such as the kudzu vine, also known as "the vine that ate the South", basic questions remain about how and whether exotic species are functionally distinct from native species and why they tend to take over when introduced into new environments. A new study, led by University of Minnesota College of Biological ...

When a rhythm stalls, the effect can be fatal - in a power grid it can mean a blackout, and in the human heart even death. An international team of scientists has now developed a new approach for revoking these undesired quenching states. They use an advanced mathematical methodology, building on complex networks analysis, and demonstrate it in experiments with chemical reactions. This could one day help to stabilize the flow of electricity in power grids challenged by the variable input from renewable energy sources. Future research could apply it to other complex networks, ...