Health News Roundup: Mental health, Prostate cancer, high B.P linked to dementia


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 02-11-2018 10:56 IST | Created: 02-11-2018 10:29 IST
Health News Roundup: Mental health, Prostate cancer, high B.P linked to dementia
Men with prostate cancer who get surgery or radiation are also more likely start taking antidepressants than their counterparts who don't get aggressive treatment, a recent study suggests.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Prostate cancer surgery and radiation tied to antidepressant use

Men with prostate cancer who get surgery or radiation are also more likely start taking antidepressants than their counterparts who don't get aggressive treatment, a recent study suggests. Many men with early-stage prostate cancer may not need treatment right away, or ever, because these tumours often don't grow fast enough to cause symptoms or prove fatal. In the absence of symptoms or tests that suggest tumours are growing quickly, doctors may advise men to put off immediate treatments like surgery or radiation and instead get regular screenings to reassess whether the cancer is dangerous enough to warrant intervention.

Alkermes' depression treatment fails to get FDA panel backing

An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday voted against approving Alkermes Plc's treatment for depression in patients with an inadequate response to standard antidepressant therapies. The decision comes two days after FDA staff reviewers https://bit.ly/2QegxPF flagged abuse potential for the opioid-based depression treatment and raised questions on its efficacy.

Race may impact help-seeking by women facing barriers to breast cancer care

African American women with abnormal mammograms may be less likely than those from other ethnic and racial groups to recognize the barriers to follow-up care that can delay a breast cancer diagnosis or to seek help overcoming them, a U.S. study suggests. Many barriers to obtaining routine screening mammograms - whether it's lack of insurance, transportation or awareness - can contribute to delayed breast cancer diagnoses and lead to lower survival odds, researchers note in the journal Cancer.

Mental health diagnoses rising among U.S. college students

A range of common mental health conditions are being diagnosed more often in U.S. university students, according to a study that also finds students are more willing to seek help than in the past. Based on surveys of more than 450,000 college students at 452 institutions, researchers found that from 2009 to 2015, the proportion who report having a diagnosis or being treated has gone up for anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, insomnia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and panic attacks.

Click-on bionic arm could help amputees do the simple things

Edmund Rath, a 53-year-old from Austria, wants to do simple things such as brush his teeth and slice bread. Most people take such activities for granted but not Rath, who lost his arm just below the shoulder in a truck accident last year that ended his career as a builder. That bad luck was followed by a stroke of fortune.

Many women over 50 have leaky bladders, most don't seek treatment

Nearly half of women over age 50 report bladder leakage and many say it's a major problem for them, according to a new U.S. survey. Of the more than 1,000 women ages 50 to 80 who participated in the survey, 43 per cent of 50- to 64-year-olds said they suffered from incontinence, as did 51 per cent of those 65 and older.

Tenth child dies from viral outbreak at New Jersey facility

A 10th child died has in a viral outbreak at a rehabilitation centre in northern New Jersey, where 27 young patients with compromised immune systems have been confirmed with adenovirus infections, state health officials said. The child had fallen ill prior to Oct. 22, the New Jersey Department of Health said in a statement late on Wednesday. It did not say when the child died at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in the town of Haskell.

Groundskeeper in Bayer in U.S. weed-killer case accepts reduced award

The school groundskeeper who won a jury trial against Bayer AG's Monsanto unit over allegations that the company's glyphosate-containing weed-killers caused his cancer, accepted a court-mandated reduced punitive damages award on Wednesday. The decision by Dewayne Johnson, who sued Monsanto in 2016, brings the total award to $78 million, down from the jury's verdict on Aug. 10 of $289 million - $39 million in compensatory and $250 million in punitive damages.

AbbVie, Roche combo treatment meets main goal of leukemia trial

AbbVie Inc and Roche Holding AG said on Wednesday their targeted therapy delayed the progression of a type of blood and bone marrow cancer when used in combination with the Swiss drugmaker's cancer drug in a late-stage trial. The drug, Venclexta, when used with Roche's Gazyva, showed a statistically significant reduction in the risk of disease worsening or death in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), when compared to the standard of care, Roche said.

Pregnancy high blood pressure linked to dementia decades later

Pregnant women who develop preeclampsia, a condition involving dangerously high blood pressure, have more than three times higher risk of dementia later in life than women who don't have this pregnancy complication, researchers say. A leading cause of pre-term birth, preeclampsia is an inflammatory blood vessel disorder that occurs in 2 per cent to 10 per cent of pregnancies, usually after 20 weeks' gestation. In addition to high blood pressure, the condition can cause abnormally high levels of protein in the urine and fluid retention.

(With inputs from Reuters)

(With inputs from agencies.)

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