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How Much Chronic Depression With Medical Disorders Affect Work Performance?
A group of Australian researchers investigated in medical disorders the effects of comorbid dysthymic disorder as compared to major depressive disorder (MDD) on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) and disability days in the general population. In a population-based study 4,181 individuals were assessed for the presence of dysthymic disorder and depression, utilizing the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Each participant received a thorough medical examination to assess the presence of comorbid somatic conditions. HR-QoL was evaluated using the Medical Outcomes Survey Short-Form 36 (SF-36) and disability days were provided by self-report.
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Some Routine Cancer Screenings Not Proven To Reduce Deaths, Experts Say
Routine screenings for cancers -- including breast cancer in younger women -- have not proven to reduce the chance of death for people without specific symptoms or risk factors, and experts suggest that some tests could lead to harm, the New York Times reports.According to Ned Calonge, chair of the United States Preventive Services Task Force, screening is only useful if it prevents enough deaths to outweigh harm from treatments that are not medically necessary. He said that although screening in some cases will detect life-threatening cancers that respond to intervention, it also can result in false positives that cause needless worry and unnecessary procedures. Screening also might fail to diagnose an existing cancer, causing patients to ignore symptoms; find slow-growing or stable cancers that are not life-threatening and normally do not need treatment; or find aggressive, life-threatening cancers that do not respond to treatment, Calonge said. Only a handful of screening tests have been proven to significantly reduce death among certain age groups: pap tests to screen for cervical cancer beginning no later than age 21; mammograms to screen for breast cancer starting at age 40; and colon cancer screening beginning at age 50. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no medical proof that routine screening for many other cancers -- including ovarian cancer -- reduces deaths.The Times reports that the Breast Cancer Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act of 2009 (HR 1740) -- also known as the Early Act -- has become a central issue in the debate because it would create a breast cancer detection campaign for women younger than age 45. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) introduced the bill in March, and it now has more than 350 co-sponsors. The bill would provide $45 million over five years for teaching young women and their physicians to check for abnormalities; promote healthy lifestyle choices; and provide grants to groups supporting women with breast cancer. The bill focuses on certain ethnic or racial groups at higher risk of developing aggressive tumors. CDC would oversee an expert panel to create the campaign based on the latest medical research, Wasserman-Schultz said.Critics of the bill say that the legislation promotes techniques, such as self-exams, that have not proven to detect cancer at earlier stages or reduce deaths. They also argue that self-exams could lead to many insignificant nodules being biopsied, which can cause scarring and make it harder to detect breast cancer when women are older. According to Susan Love -- a breast cancer surgeon who has encouraged Wasserman-Schultz to abandon the bill -- the public health campaign could cause younger women to overestimate their chances of dying of breast cancer (Singer, New York Times, 7/17).
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New Research Measures Mood
In 1881, the optimistic Irish economist Francis Edgeworth imagined a strange device called a "hedonimeter" that would be capable of "continually registering the height of pleasure experienced by an individual." In other words, a happiness sensor.
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The US National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute Battles Chronic Disease In Developing Countries

The US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, which is a founding member of the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease, has decided to go forward strongly and improve its plan to target chronic diseases in developing countries by collaborating with a leading health and wellbeing corporation. Together, they plan to build numerous centers of excellence (COEs) across the world. The details of this partnership have been published in a comment Online First and in this week"s edition of The Lancet. The article in the comment is written by Dr Elizabeth G Nabel, director of NHLBI, Bethesda, MD, USA; Simon Stevens, executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group; and Dr Richard Smith, director of the UnitedHealth Chronic Disease Initiative. It mentions that cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases are the major problems that face the developing nations with an astonishing 80 percent of chronic disease related deaths occuring in these poorer nations. These diseases are also responsible of causing more than half of all the deaths worldwide. The authors continue by saying: "If present trends continue unabated, annual deaths from chronic diseases will reach 41 million by 2015, and almost half of these will be in people younger than 70 years. Since the major causes of chronic diseases are known, half of these deaths are preventable." NHLBI has developed a partnership with UnitedHealth group, producing an association of COEs worldwide, including in Bangladesh, China, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Peru, South Africa-Tanzania, Tunisia, and the US-Mexico border. The authors say: "Each COE includes a research institution in a developing country paired with at least one partner academic institution in a developed country. The research goals span a range of activities tailored to regional needs and disease effect...Clearly, not only do chronic diseases know no boundaries, they also travel together. Thus, the consortium aims to broaden study beyond individual diseases, in keeping with WHO"s recommendation to address chronic diseases as they group in a real-world setting." The first COEs in the South Africa-Tanzania and China sites developed portable tools that can be used in the field to determine risk of chronic disease. The South African site is near completion putting emphasis on straightforward and comprehensive chronic disease management guidelines that can be used by nurses and community health workers. Some COEs, such as those in India-Bangalore, Guatemala, Tunisia, and along the US/Mexico border, are working with whole small communities; helping in redesigning entirely, including schools and workplaces so that choices are simple and practical. In general, the early results of the first COEs are very promising. In conclusion, the authors mention: "The NHLBI and the UnitedHealth Group will work in partnership with...other entities to enhance synergy and to avoid duplication. To that end, the NHLBI is a founding member of the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease, a new alliance of six initial national biomedical research funders to address research needs in the chronic non-communicable diseases. "Now is the time for sustained and coordinated scientific leadership to focus global efforts on combating the social, economic, and political toll of chronic disease. The NHLBI and UnitedHealth Group collaboration is an important piece of this public health initiative that is so vital for our global citizenry." "Combating chronic disease in developing countries" Elizabeth G Nabel, Simon Stevens, Richard Smith DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61074-6 thelancet Written by Stephanie Brunner (B.A.) Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today


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