Manic Monday

Dogs Sniffing Out Health Problems

Catching up on my weekend Web reading, I came across an interesting video from National Geographic, about dogs who sniff out cancer and health problems associated with diabetes.

One of the dogs featured, a collie named Tinker, began whining and barking when his owner, who has diabetes, experienced dangerous drops in blood sugar. Although Tinker wasn’t trained at first, his reactions to the hypoglycemic attacks led to further training as a qualified “hypo alert” dog. The video also features the work of the British research center, Cancer and Bio-Detection Dogs.

The center has 17 rescue dogs at various stages of training that will be paired up with diabetic owners, including many children, reports Reuters.

Source and More
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/dogs-sniffing-out-health-problems/
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Clinical trial shows quadriplegics can operate powered wheelchair with tongue drive system

An assistive technology that enables individuals to maneuver a powered wheelchair or control a mouse cursor using simple tongue movements can be operated by individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries, according to the results of a recently completed clinical trial.

"This clinical trial has validated that the Tongue Drive system is intuitive and quite simple for individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries to use," said Maysam Ghovanloo, an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "Trial participants were able to easily remember and correctly issue tongue commands to play computer games and drive a powered wheelchair around an obstacle course with very little prior training."

At the annual conference of the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) on June 26, the researchers reported the results of the first five clinical trial subjects to use the Tongue Drive system. The trial was conducted at the Shepherd Center, an Atlanta-based catastrophic care hospital, and funded by the National Science Foundation and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

The clinical trial tested the ability of these individuals with tetraplegia, as a result of high-level spinal cord injuries (cervical vertebrae C3-C5), to perform tasks related to computer access and wheelchair navigation -- using only their tongue movements.

Source and More
http://www.physorg.com/news166097287.html
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Delirium in hospitalized adults: Situation critical, no relief available

Every year as many as seven million adults in the United States experience delirium during hospitalization. In a systematic review of the scientific literature on delirium prevention and treatment, investigators from Indiana University School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute and Wishard Health Services found that despite the significant health and financial burdens of delirium for hospitalized adults, no effective way to prevent or treat the condition has been identified.

"Having delirium prolongs the length of a hospital stay, increases the risk of post-hospitalization transfer to a nursing home and doubles the risk of death. We need to identify a safe and effective drug to prevent and treat delirium. With our review we are challenging the scientific community to come up with new therapeutic options," said Malaz Boustani, M.D., senior author of the study which appears in the July 2009 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Boustani is a Regenstrief Institute investigator and associate professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine.

Delirium, experienced by a significant number of older patients in surgical and critical care units and over half of older adults who are hospitalized for broken hips, is a state of confusion in which the individual has undergone a sudden alteration of mental status. Delirium is not dementia, but individuals with dementia are more susceptible to developing delirium during hospitalization than individuals without dementia.

The researchers found that only 13 randomized controlled studies on promising drugs for delirium were conducted from January 1966 to October 2008. These studies identified and evaluated 15 drugs including first and second generation antipsychotics, the drugs currently prescribed by most physicians for patients with delirium. The researchers found that neither older agents nor newer, more expensive medications were effective in preventing delirium. The study also found no difference between antipsychotics in treating delirium. To date, there are no U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved drugs to prevent or manage delirium according to Dr. Boustani.

Source and More
http://www.physorg.com/news166097419.html
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Mental Health Risks with Popular Stop-Smoking Drugs

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that patients taking the popular stop-smoking drugs Chantix and Zyban should be watched closely for signs of serious mental illness. The warning was issued following mounting reports of bizarre behavior, including suicide, among users of the drugs. Pfizer is the maker of Chantix (varenicline), and GlaxoSmithKine is the manufacturer of Zyban (buproprion). Buproprion is also sold under the brand name Wellbutrin, as a treatment for depression.

Both of the drugs will now be required to carry “black box” labels warning that people who take the drugs should be closely monitored for signs of suicidal thoughts, depression, hostility, and other behavioral changes. In addition, both drug companies will be required to conduct clinical trials for the purpose of assessing the mental health risks associated with the uses of the drugs. Unlike the clinical trials leading to the FDA approval of the drugs, the new trials will enroll smokers with underlying psychiatric disorders. Pfizer has already begun enrollment of schizophrenia patients in a trial.

Source and More
http://www.healthnews.com/family-health/mental-health-risks-popular-stop-smoking-drugs-3415.html