Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . If you get to be 85 or older, you automatically become a member of the population group known as "the very old." New data reveal that psychotic symptoms among these seniors have been greatly underestimated, a finding with potential public health consequences.http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.wordpress.com
Several population studies of elderly people with healthy brains have indicated that fewer than 3 percent of them suffer from psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions. These assessments have relied on interviews with volunteers between ages 65 and 75. So far, older individuals have rarely been studied.
The latest data, published in the January Archives of General Psychiatry, derive from interviews with 85-year-olds and their family members or other close acquaintances. In many cases, detailed medical records were also available.
This more-thorough approach found psychotic symptoms in 10 percent of a representative sample of 85-year-olds living in the Swedish city G�teborg, including those in elder-care facilities. Moreover, by age 88, the elderly volunteers with psychotic symptoms more often had developed degenerative brain disease than their counterparts had, report Svante �stling and Ingmar Skoog, both psychiatrists at G�teborg University in Sweden.
"This is a unique and important study," remarks psychiatrist Dilip V. Jeste of the University of California, San Diego. He contends that the U.S. health-care system is unprepared to deal with a rise in mental illness as the number of elderly people increases over the next 30 years (SN: 9/18/99, p.189). What's more, �stling and Skoog add, a cause for current concern is that many elderly people don't report their psychotic symptoms in psychiatric interviews and their condition thus evades detection by medical providers.
The Swedish researchers used census records in G�teborg to randomly select 347 participants, all 85 years old and free of neurological ailments, and then followed them for 3 years. A spouse, child, nurse, or friend described the emotional condition of 305 of the elderly volunteers to an interviewer. Medical records were available for 283 individuals.http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.wordpress.com
The results provided reason for concern. In the year before the study, 35 individuals had experienced one or more psychotic symptoms, the scientists say. Symptoms included hallucinations such as hearing voices, delusions of being controlled by others' thoughts, and a pervasive but mistaken sense of being harassed or conspired against. Third party interviews provided the only information about psychotic symptoms in 21 cases.http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.wordpress.com
Nearly half of the volunteers with psychotic symptoms developed a degenerative brain disease by age 88, compared with about 12 percent of the other volunteers, the researchers say.
Along with its strengths, the new study contains two weaknesses, Jeste holds.
First, it doesn't address whether psychotic symptoms in elderly volunteers began early or late in life. Second, those with psychotic symptoms didn't receive a psychiatric diagnosis. Possible diagnoses cover a wide spectrum, from schizophrenia to less severe psychotic disorders.
Still, it's now apparent that physicians need to talk to third parties about the mental condition of elderly patients, says psychiatrist John C.S. Breitner of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore in a comment on the new finding.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
plastic 44.pla.22002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Exposure to small amounts of an ingredient in polycarbonate plastic may increase a person's risk of diabetes, according to a new study in mice. http://louis8j8sheehan8esquire.blogspot.com
The synthetic chemical called bisphenol-A is used to make dental sealants, sturdy microwavable plastics, linings for metal food-and-beverage containers, baby bottles, and numerous other products. When consumed, the chemical can mimic the effects of estrogen. Previous tests had found that bisphenol-A can leach into food and water and that it's widely prevalent in human blood.http://louis9j9sheehan9esquire.blogspot.com
The newfound contribution of the chemical to insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, might partially explain the global epidemic of that disease, says Angel Nadal of Miguel Hernández University of Elche in Spain, who led the new study.
The finding is a "wake-up call" for public health researchers who are concerned by the prevalence of diabetes, comments developmental biologist Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri–Columbia.
Earlier test-tube studies had suggested that bisphenol-A makes pancreatic cells secrete the glucose-regulating hormone insulin. To investigate this effect in live animals, Nadal and his colleagues injected adult male mice with pure corn oil or with oil containing either bisphenol-A or an equal amount of the natural female sex hormone estradiol. Animals received as many as eight shots over 4 days.
Within 30 minutes of an injection, animals receiving either the sex hormone or bisphenol-A had abnormally low concentrations of glucose in their blood, Nadal's team reports in the January Environmental Health Perspectives. The chemicals acted on recently discovered estrogen receptors on pancreatic cells' surfaces to boost the cells' secretion of insulin, the researchers determined.
Repeated exposure to either bisphenol-A or the natural estrogen over several days produced insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic state in which tissues lose their sensitivity to normal concentrations of insulin, Nadal's group says. Estrogen receptors in the pancreatic-cell nucleus appear to contribute to this gradual effect.
So, receptors both in the cell nucleus and on the surface could contribute to insulin resistance and diabetes, Nadal says.http://louis1j1sheehan1esquire.blogspot.com
This risk could add to or elucidate already documented health effects of bisphenol-A. http://louis6j6sheehan.blogspot.com
Animal studies have suggested that exposure to the chemical early in life causes obesity, says Ana M. Soto of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.
Furthermore, bisphenol-A exposure might contribute to gestational diabetes in women, in whom insulin resistance often increases during pregnancy, says Jerry Heindel of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Inside cells' nuclei, bisphenol-A is less potent than the natural sex hormone, says vom Saal. But the new work shows that at the surface of pancreatic cells, the compounds have the same potency, he notes. Doses of bisphenol-A considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to have no adverse effect led to insulin resistance in the mouse study.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
The synthetic chemical called bisphenol-A is used to make dental sealants, sturdy microwavable plastics, linings for metal food-and-beverage containers, baby bottles, and numerous other products. When consumed, the chemical can mimic the effects of estrogen. Previous tests had found that bisphenol-A can leach into food and water and that it's widely prevalent in human blood.http://louis9j9sheehan9esquire.blogspot.com
The newfound contribution of the chemical to insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, might partially explain the global epidemic of that disease, says Angel Nadal of Miguel Hernández University of Elche in Spain, who led the new study.
The finding is a "wake-up call" for public health researchers who are concerned by the prevalence of diabetes, comments developmental biologist Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri–Columbia.
Earlier test-tube studies had suggested that bisphenol-A makes pancreatic cells secrete the glucose-regulating hormone insulin. To investigate this effect in live animals, Nadal and his colleagues injected adult male mice with pure corn oil or with oil containing either bisphenol-A or an equal amount of the natural female sex hormone estradiol. Animals received as many as eight shots over 4 days.
Within 30 minutes of an injection, animals receiving either the sex hormone or bisphenol-A had abnormally low concentrations of glucose in their blood, Nadal's team reports in the January Environmental Health Perspectives. The chemicals acted on recently discovered estrogen receptors on pancreatic cells' surfaces to boost the cells' secretion of insulin, the researchers determined.
Repeated exposure to either bisphenol-A or the natural estrogen over several days produced insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic state in which tissues lose their sensitivity to normal concentrations of insulin, Nadal's group says. Estrogen receptors in the pancreatic-cell nucleus appear to contribute to this gradual effect.
So, receptors both in the cell nucleus and on the surface could contribute to insulin resistance and diabetes, Nadal says.http://louis1j1sheehan1esquire.blogspot.com
This risk could add to or elucidate already documented health effects of bisphenol-A. http://louis6j6sheehan.blogspot.com
Animal studies have suggested that exposure to the chemical early in life causes obesity, says Ana M. Soto of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.
Furthermore, bisphenol-A exposure might contribute to gestational diabetes in women, in whom insulin resistance often increases during pregnancy, says Jerry Heindel of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Inside cells' nuclei, bisphenol-A is less potent than the natural sex hormone, says vom Saal. But the new work shows that at the surface of pancreatic cells, the compounds have the same potency, he notes. Doses of bisphenol-A considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to have no adverse effect led to insulin resistance in the mouse study.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
