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New obesity compound shows promise in mice

July 28, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – A compound similar to Sanofi-Aventis’ once-promising weight loss drug Acomplia helped obese mice lose weight and lower their blood fats and blood sugar without causing psychological side effects, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Like Acomplia, the drug targets cannabinoid receptors that become active after smoking marijuana, but the team tinkered with the compound to keep it from crossing over into the brain, reducing the risk of depression, anxiety or other neurological problems seen in the original drug.

While obese mice do not lose as much weight on this new compound, it was just as effective as Acomplia in reducing obesity-related metabolic changes, researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Northeastern University reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

“It does cause weight loss in diet-related obesity, but less than the other compound, which is not the only problem in obesity,” Dr. George Kunos of the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, said in a telephone interview.

Obesity has become an epidemic in the United States, leading to a huge increase in diabetes and a host of related health problems. But many potential weight-loss drugs have either failed or been abandoned due to safety issues.

Acomplia had to be pulled from the market after it was linked to several deaths and hundreds of adverse drug reactions in Britain.

The drug, known generically as rimonabant, never won U.S. approval after a panel of experts rejected it amid fears it may cause suicidal thoughts.

Rimonabant targets the protein CB1R, the same molecule that controls the effects of marijuana. CB1R is present both in the brain and in organs such as the liver and pancreas and fat tissue.

Kunos and Alexandros Makriyannis of Northeastern University in Boston tested a more selective drug that only blocks CB1R in peripheral organs, but cannot get into the brain.

They found mice that become fat from eating too much lost about 12 percent of their body weight on this new formulation, compared with 21 percent in similar mice that had taken rimonabant.

But Kunos said the other effects — reduced blood fats that can cause heart disease and lower blood sugar that can affect the risk of diabetes — were about the same with both the new and the old drugs.

Kunos said the drug had no effect on mutant mice that were obese because they lacked the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin.

“In obesity, mice and humans lose their sensitivity to leptin. This drug restores that sensitivity,” Kunos said, offering a possible explanation for the difference.

He said the next step is to do tests to see if the drug is toxic to humans. Eventually, the hope is that the drug will be tested as a new anti-obesity treatment.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Acomplia, Adverse Drug Reactions, bethesda maryland, Blood Fats, Cannabinoid Receptors, depression anxiety, drug targets, Effects Of Marijuana, journal of clinical investigation, Metabolic Changes, National Institutes of Health, neurological problems, northeastern university, Obese Mice, peripheral organs, Psychological Side, related health, Sanofi Aventis, smoking marijuana, Weight Loss Drugs

Americans prefer drugs for depression, survey finds

June 2, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

June 1 (Reuters) – Americans prefer drugs to talk therapy for depression, with nearly 80 percent taking a pill for the condition, Consumer Reports said on Tuesday.

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The most popular class of drugs remain the so-called SSRIs such as Prozac, the group found. People found newer, pricier antidepressants less desirable because of side-effects.

Patients benefited just as much from therapy — almost any kind of therapy, the consumer group found in its survey of 1,500 readers.

Those surveyed said they improved just as much after seven or more sessions of talk therapy as if they took drugs and it did not matter if the therapist was a psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker.

Nearly 80 percent of people who had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety were prescribed antidepressants.

Patients were happiest with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, a class that includes Eli Lilly and Co’s (LLY.N) Prozac or its generic equivalent fluoxetine;, Pfizer Inc’s (PFE.N) Zoloft or sertraline, and Celexa or citalopram and Lexapro o escitalopram from Forest Laboratories Inc (FRX.N).

People complained of more side-effects from serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors or SNRIs, a newer, often more expensive class of antidepressants, the survey found.

These include venlafaxine, made by Pfizer-owned (PFE.N) Wyeth under the Effexor brand name and Lilly’s duloxetine, sold as Cymbalta.

The survey found a range of side-effects, but the most common one — loss of sexual interest or ability — was less common than in past surveys, the consumer group said.

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Poor kids more vulnerable to poor sleep effects

May 14, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 14 (ANI): School kids from poor families are more vulnerable to the effects of poor sleep than their peers, concludes a new study.

The research, that assessed the ties between children”s sleep and their emotional development, by researchers at Auburn University, appears in the May/June 2010 issue of the journal Child Development.

The researchers looked at how sleep disruptions—namely, the amount, quality, and schedule of sleep—affect children”s adjustment.

They examined more than 140 children in third to fifth grades, of whom three-quarters were White and almost a quarter were African American. Families varied widely in terms of annual income and parents” education and jobs.

The study gathered information from parents” and children”s reports, as well as motion sensors worn by the children at night to examine their sleep. The researchers looked at relations between sleep and emotional development when children were in third and fifth grades; they also compared how children”s sleep when they were in third grade was related to their well-being when they were in fifth grade.

Findings indicate that children from poorer families had higher levels of externalizing symptoms (such as aggression and delinquency) and internalizing symptoms (such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem) when they slept poorly. Conversely, when these children slept better, their levels of symptoms were similar to those of other children from nonpoor families.

“The significance of children”s sleep to their development is receiving increased attention,” according to Mona El-Sheikh, Alumni Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University and the study”s lead author.

“Our findings can inform intervention programs as well as parent education programs. Programs that are tailored to families” resources and challenges are likely to be more effective.” (ANI)

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”Presenteeism” – the new workplace problem

March 27, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Mar 27 (ANI): Presenteeism is emerging as the new workplace scourge, which is eating away at company profits and costing Australian businesses almost 6 billion dollars in lost productivity each year, according to a new study.

The opposite of absenteeism, when workers take sick days for being unwell, presenteeism is when employees continue turning up to work but their productivity and effectiveness is reduced.

Depression, anxiety and other psychological stresses have been found to be the biggest contributors to lost productivity among workers.

In the study, researchers monitored the work productivity of more than 60,000 full-time employees for chronic and acute physical and mental health conditions.

Out of 20 different physical and mental conditions, the research found mental health was the single largest contributor to lost productivity, followed by musculoskeletal problems.

University of Queensland professor of psychiatry and population health Harvey Whiteford, who helped conduct the research, said 9.6 per cent of employees had moderate psychological distress and a further 4.5 per cent had high psychological distress.

He said that the more severe the worker”s mental health issue, the more productivity was lost.

He added that companies should extend their physical examinations of workers to cover mental health as well, and counsel any workers in need to seek professional help.

“A significant number of people respond to short-term face-to-face or telephone counselling when you get to them early,” the Courier Mail quoted him as saying.

The study has been published in the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: absenteeism, australia and new zealand, australian businesses, company profits, courier mail, depression anxiety, mental health conditions, Mental Health Issue, Musculoskeletal Problems, physical examinations, population health, psychological distress, Psychological Stresses, sick days, study researchers, Time Employees, university of queensland, Whiteford, Work Productivity, Workplace Problem

New scale to measure anxiety outcomes

March 11, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 10 (ANI): Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital have developed a new questionnaire and outcomes measurement scale that can turn out to be a reliable and valid measure of anxiety.

The scale can easily be incorporated into routine clinical practice when treating psychiatric disorders.

If scales are to be incorporated into clinical practices, it is necessary to develop measures that are feasible and have good psychometric properties.

Keeping this in mind, Dr. Mark Zimmerman and his colleagues developed the Clinically Useful Anxiety Outcome Scale (CUXOS).

“If the optimal delivery of mental health treatment ultimately depends on examining outcome, then precise, reliable, valid, informative, and user-friendly measurement is critical to evaluating the quality and efficiency of care in clinical practice. Clinicians are already overburdened with paperwork, and adding to this load by requiring repeated detailed evaluations using instruments that are available is unlikely to meet success,” said Zimmerman.

The researchers note that only 11 percent of the psychiatrists are routinely using standardized measures to assess outcomes when treating depression or anxiety disorders.

The CUXOS was designed to be brief for patients to complete and then quickly scored by a clinician. In their study, nearly 1,000 psychiatric outpatients completed the CUXOS, which took less than one and a half minutes to complete.

Clinicians rated the severity of depression, anxiety, and anger on standardized scales and each CUXOS could be scored in less than 15 seconds.

The researchers also had a subset of patients complete other self-report symptom severity scales in order to examine discriminant and convergent validity.

Another subset completed the CUXOS twice in order to examine test-retest reliability.

In addition, sensitivity to change was examined in patients with panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.

Zimmerman said that the scale was found to have high internal consistency and test-retest reliability.

Further, it was more highly correlated with other self-report measures of anxiety than with measures of depression, substance abuse problems, eating disorders and anger.

It was also more closely aligned with clinician severity ratings of anxiety than depression and anger, and the CUXOS scores were significantly higher in psychiatric outpatients with anxiety disorders than other psychiatric disorders.

Finally, it was found to be a valid measure of symptom change.

“We believe that the use of standardized scales should be the standard of care and routinely used to measure outcome when treating psychiatric disorders. Only in this way can we ensure that we are having an impact on our patients,” said Zimmerman.

The study appears online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: anxiety disorders, clinical practices, Convergent Validity, depression anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, Mark Zimmerman, Measurement Scale, Mental Health Treatment, Optimal Delivery, outpatients, Panic Disorder, Practice Clinicians, Psychiatric Disorders, Psychometric Properties, Routine Clinical Practice, Self Report, symptom severity, Test Retest Reliability, Treating Depression, Valid Measure

Too many chocolates, chips, mental problems linked to acne in teens

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 16 (ANI): High intake of chocolate and chips along with mental health issues is linked to the development of zits, pimples, bumps and blemishes in young people, says a Norwegian study.

Researcher Jon Anders Halvorsen, University of Oslo, along with co-authors from Lhasa (Tibet) and Boston (US) looked into the possible causes of the common skin condition affecting millions of adolescents.

The team investigated the links between acne, diet and mental health issues in both males and females.

The researchers found a significant connection between acne and low intake of raw and fresh vegetables in girls, leading to probable indication that a low-glycemic index could have a protective role in the development of acne.

Dr. Halvorsen said: “Our study shows a possible link between diet and acne. However, when we introduced symptoms of depression and anxiety in our statistical model, the role of diet became less clear. On the other hand the association between acne and mental health problems was still strong when diet was introduced. This underscores mental health problems as an important aspect of young people’s acne”.

He concluded, “It is too early to give evidence based diet advice to teenagers with acne. Further studies are needed. Luckily, acne is rarely associated with serious morbidity. However, it does cause problems for a high number of young people. I hope that this study will encourage doctors to help adolescents to treat their acne and researchers to find preventive factors. Young people deserve better!”

The study has been published in the open access journal BMC Public Health. (ANI)

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15pc preschoolers suffer from anxiety, depression: Canadian study

August 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 29 (ANI): Almost 15 pct of the preschoolers suffer from high levels of depression and anxiety, according to a Canadian study.

The five-year investigation showed that children with atypically high depression and anxiety levels are more likely to have mothers with a history of depression.

“As early as the first year of life, there are indications that some children have more risks than others to develop high levels of depression and anxiety,” said first author Sylvana M. Cote, a professor at the Universite de Montreal’s Department of Social and Preventive Medicine.

“Difficult temperament at five months was the most important predictor of depression and anxiety in the children,” Cote added.

During the study, the researchers examined 1,758 children born in Quebec.

“We found that lifetime maternal depression was the second most important predictor of atypically high depressive and anxiety problems during preschool years,” said Cote.

“Our study is the first to show that infant temperament and lifetime maternal depression can lead to a high trajectory of depressive and anxiety problems before school entry.

“It is critical that preventive interventions be experimented with infants who risk developing depressive and anxiety disorders.

“Health professionals should target such high risk children at infancy, as well as their parents, to have a long-term impact on their well-being,” Cote added.

The study is published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. (ANI)

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Partner relationship could be a buffer against work-related stress

June 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 24 (ANI): A healthy relationship with a partner can act as a buffer for people who are constantly exposed to work-related stress, according to a PhD student in psychology.

In her new doctoral dissertation, Ann-Christine Andersson Arnten, from the University of Gothenburg, interviewed 900 persons under a survey.

“The relationship reduces the negative effects of this kind of stress on our health. But poor relationships will amplify the negative effects”, said Andersson Arnten.

“A positive approach and successful stress-management techniques also help to reduce the negative effects of work-related stress.

“But when there are stressful experiences both at work and in the relationship, the risk of burn-out and poor health increases dramatically,” she added.

The survey revealed that people who felt that they had a good relationship with their partners enjoyed better health than those who had a more problematic relationship.

Women with a poorly-functioning relationship experienced more anxiety, mental stress reactions and sleeping difficulties than women who had a good relationship.

Men who had a mediocre relationship suffered a higher incidence of depression, anxiety, psychological and somatic stress reactions than men with worse or better relationships.

Andersson Arnten said: “One explanation can be that people living ith a mediocre relationship take more responsibility to improve he relationship, while those with poor relationships just admit t, and don’t feel they can do anything about it.” (ANI)

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Mouse model may pave way for better anti-depressant treatments

May 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 28 (ANI): Using a new experimental mouse model of depression/anxiety, scientists have found that the anti-depressant effects of drugs like Prozac involve both neurogenesis-dependent and -independent mechanisms.

The finding could lead to development of better treatments for depression and anxiety.

The mouse model is the first to permit simultaneous examination of multiple effects of antidepressant treatment in the same animal.

Not much is known about the specific molecular influences of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and other types of antidepressants commonly prescribed for treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.

“Recently, compelling work in rodents has suggested that SSRIs may stimulate changes in a brain region called the hippocampus as well as other brain structures. For example, anxiety/depression-like changes in behavior have been linked with a decrease in cell proliferation in the hippocampus, a change that is reversed by antidepressants,” said study author Dr. Denis J. David from the University of Paris-Sud.

Previous studies have already confirmed that long-term exposure to glucocorticoids induces anxiety and a depressive-like state in rodents. Elevated glucocorticoid levels have been linked with depression and anxiety in humans.

“We developed an anxiety/depression-like model based on elevation of glucocorticoid levels that offered an easy and reliable alternative to existing models,” said David.

Chronic anti-depressant treatment reversed the behavioural dysfunctions and inhibition of hippocampal neurogenesis observed in the experimental mice.

They observed that when hippocampal neurogenesis was prevented, the efficacy of Prozac was blocked in some but not all of the behavioural paradigms.

The researchers could identify candidate genes whose expression was decreased in a brain region called the hypothalamus and normalized by Prozac.

Mice deficient in one of these genes, beta-arrestin 2, displayed a reduced response to Prozac in multiple behavioural tasks.

This indicated that beta-arrestin signalling is necessary for the antidepressant effects of Prozac.

The finding suggested that both neurogenesis-dependent and – independent mechanisms underlie antidepressant actions.

The study has been published in the latest issue of the journal Neuron. (ANI)

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Depressed first graders more prone to bullying later on

May 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 15 (ANI): A new study has shown that children who are depressed, anxious and aggressive in first grade are more likely to become a victim of bullies by third grade.

Researchers from University of Victoria studied more than 400 Canadian first graders and asked the, about their experiences being bullied (such as being hit, pushed, and shoved, or being teased and excluded from play).

The teachers were asked to report on the children’s symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as on their displays of physical aggression.

Nearly, 73 percent of the kids showed few symptoms of depression and anxiety over the three years. But 7 percent of the children showed continuously high levels.

And the remaining 20 percent showed moderate symptoms at first, but these increased over time.

The study showed that children with more depressed and anxious symptoms in first and second grade were more likely to be victimized by third grade.

Moreover, children who were more aggressive at the start of first grade also were prone to depression and anxiety by third grade.

These children also were more likely to be victimized by their peers, perhaps in retaliation for their own acts of aggression.

“Children’s early mental health problems can set the stage for abuse by their peers,” according to Bonnie J. Leadbeater, professor of psychology at the University of Victoria, who led the study.

“Just as some children learn to read with greater difficulty than others and require extra assistance when they begin to lag behind their peers, young children with mental health problems show signs that they cannot manage the complex social world of elementary school.

“Treating children’s mental health problems may go a long way toward reducing bullying,” he added.

The study appears in the journal Child Development. (ANI)

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Extract of Kava may help beat the blues

May 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 12 (ANI): A traditional extract of Kava, a medicinal plant from the South Pacific, may be safe and effective in reducing anxiety as well as depression, a study has found.

In the study, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia found that a water-soluble extract of Kava was effective in treating anxiety and improving mood.

The Kava was prescribed in the form of tablets.

Lead researcher Jerome Sarris, a PhD candidate from UQ’s School of Medicine, said the placebo-controlled study found Kava to be an effective and safe treatment option for people with chronic anxiety and varying levels of depression.

“We’ve been able to show that Kava offers a natural alternative for the treatment of anxiety, and unlike some pharmaceutical options, has less risk of dependency and less potential of side effects,” Sarris said.

Each week participants were given a clinical assessment as well as a self-rating questionnaire to measure their anxiety and depression levels.

The researchers found anxiety levels decreased dramatically for participants taking five tablets of Kava per day as opposed to the placebo group, which took dummy pills.

“We also found that Kava had a positive impact on reducing depression levels, something which had not been tested before,” Sarris said.

While the three-week trial raised no major health concerns regarding the Kava extract used, the researchers said larger studies were required to confirm the drug’s safety.

The study is to be published online this week in the Springer journal Psychopharmacology. (ANI)

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Genetic risk for anxiety, depression not predestined: Study

May 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 30 (ANI): Previous studies have provided a strong basis of support for hypothesis that individuals with particular genotypes are predestined to negative life outcomes such as depression, anxiety disorders. But now, a new study has challenged this view.

Researchers studied infant monkeys from four different rearing conditions to examine how social context and different forms of early adversity interact with genotype to influence behaviour.

Animals reared in small social groups were more likely to be aggressive and anxious, particularly among those with a low activity MAOA genotype.

However, no genotype effects were evident in monkeys reared in larger social cages.

There are some circumstances in a child’s development – such as abusive parenting – that everyone would agree constitutes “adversity.”

However, this study suggests that other, subtler features of the broader social environment influence development, and that genes that affect our behavioral responses are sensitive to these influences.

So even though an infant may be reared with its nurturing mother, the relative absence of other social partners, for both the mother and the infant, can result in the infant developing an anxious style of responding to challenges, particularly if it possesses a “risky” genotype.

Of particular significance, said senior author John Capitanio, Ph.D., is “that animals that were raised in rich, complex settings with mothers, other kin, and peers, were completely protected from the potentially deleterious effects of having the ‘risky’ form of the MAOA gene.”

The study is published in the May 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry. (ANI)

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Teens use cannabis for relief, not to get high

April 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 23 (ANI): Teens who smoke cannabis on a regular basis use it as a medication, rather than as a means of getting high, a new study has found.

In the study, which was published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention and Policy, Joan Bottorff worked with a team of researchers from the University of British Columbia.

The research team conducted in-depth interviews with 63 cannabis-using adolescents. Of these, 20 claimed that they used cannabis to relieve or manage health problems.

Bottorff said, “Marijuana is perceived by some teens to be the only available alternative for those experiencing difficult health problems when legitimate medical treatments have failed or when they lack access to appropriate health care”.

The most common complaints recorded were emotional problems (including depression, anxiety and stress), sleep difficulties, problems with concentration and physical pain. The teens’ experiences with the medical system were uniformly negative.

The authors said, “Youth who reported they had been prescribed drugs such as Ritalin, Prozac or sleeping pills, stopped using them because they did not like how these drugs made them feel or found them ineffective. For these kids, the purpose of smoking marijuana was not specifically about getting high or stoned”. (ANI)

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Poor team spirit ‘raises risk of depression’ among employees

April 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Apr 9 (ANI): Difficult co-workers and awful working atmosphere leads to poor team spirit, which, in turn, increases the risk of developing depression by more than half, according to a Finnish study.

The study revealed that employees working in such atmosphere were 60 per cent more likely to be depressed, and 50 per cent more likely to use antidepressants.

Dr Marjo Sinokki, of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, said that such “psycho-social” factors as “team climate” could be used to predict mental health.Poor team climate at work was associated with depressive disorders and predicted future antidepressant medication,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

For the study, he surveyed 3,347 Finnish employees aged between 30 and 64, and asked them about their perceptions of the working environment, including team spirit, the quality of communication, and their degree of job control or demands.

The participants were asked to rate their working environment according to four descriptions of the atmosphere in the workplace, including “encouraging and supportive of new ideas”, “prejudiced and conservative”, “nice and easy” or “quarrelsome and disagreeable”.

They were also quizzed about their social lives, living arrangements and access to health services.

They were then diagnosed for depression, anxiety, and alcohol misuse.

The researchers even collected information on prescriptions for antidepressants over the following three years from a national register.

“One of the rarely studied psycho-social work characteristics with regard to mental health is team climate, considered to be a construct that refers to individuals’ perceptions of the quality of communication in the work environment,” Sinokki said.

“Organisational culture captures the way things are done in an organisation, and climate captures the way people perceive their immediate work environment.”

“As these common mental disorders are a major cause of work disability and account for a considerable proportion of the disease burden more attention should be paid to psycho-social factors at work,” he warned.

Although poor team spirit and depression were linked, there was no such association with alcohol misuse or anxiety.

The study has been published in the online journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. (ANI)

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Snoring kids at increased depression, anxiety risk

April 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 3 (ANI): Preschoolers who snore are at an increased risk of developing mood disorders, and are likely to have language and attention problems, say researchers.

“The results of our study bring out snoring as a possible risk factor for mood problems and cognitive impairment in children,” said lead researcher Eeva T. Aronen, M.D., Ph.D., of Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.

During the study, the researchers looked at 43 preschoolers aged five, who snored and 46 children who did not snore.

They found a higher rate of mood problems in kids who snored. The kids displayed symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Overall, 22 percent of snoring children had mood disorder symptoms, severe enough to warrant clinical evaluation, compared to 11 percent of the children who did not snore.

However other types of problems, such as aggressive behaviour, were not frequent among children who snored.

They also experienced sleep problems, such as nightmares, talking in their sleep, or difficulties going to bed.

Cognitive tests also showed that kids who snored had decreased attention and language skills.

“This makes intervening possible before underachieving at school or before more difficult emotional and/or behavioral symptoms develop,” said the researchers.

They suggest more research will be needed to evaluate effective treatments for young children with snoring.

The study appears in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. (ANI)

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Spending less time in bed can help beat insomnia

March 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Wellington, Mar 15 (ANI): Can’t get to sleep? Well, then stay up, say researchers at Auckland University who have discovered a potential breakthrough treatment for insomnia.

According to scientists, the key to sleeplessness is to force bad sleepers to spend less time in bed.

First, insomniacs are first told to keep a detailed diary of the time they spend in bed asleep and awake. Then, they are told to change their habits, reducing the time they spend in bed each night by the number of hours they would usually spend lying awake.

After a couple of weeks of this sleep “deficit”, many patients discover they are tired enough to start sleeping better.

The team has just completed analysis of a pilot study into the treatment.

The findings have excited interest from the British Medical Journal, which has published details.

According to senior lecturer Tony Fernando, who led the study, the results had huge public health consequences if adopted by GPs.

“It means the millions we spend on drugs, herbal medicines and special mattresses looking for an answer can actually be solved by something very simple,” The Sunday Star Times quoted him, as saying.

Fernando’s study of 40 participants over two years targeted primary insomniacs those whose insomnia has no obvious cause such as depression, anxiety or other sleep disorders.

When the insomniacs in the study underwent a four-week “sleep rescheduling protocol”, 80 to 90 percent said their insomnia had improved. (ANI)

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One million pregnant Pakistani women may have been physically abused by partners

February 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Feb 14 (ANI): Nearly a million pregnant Pakistani women may have been physically abused at least once by their partners, reckons an expert.

Prof Unaiza Niaz , president of the Women Section of World Psychiatric Associations, said that in Pakistan, societal attitudes and norms, as well as cultural practices like Karo Kari and Vani, severely affected women’s mental health.

She said that physically abused women were more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and stress-related syndromes.

Moreover, they were dependent on psychotropic medications and substance use.Suicide were other mental health problems associated with violence in women’s lives.

Prof Niaz said that negative effects of globalisation and economic reforms on public health had hit women harder than men.

“More than one billion people, mostly women, are living in extreme poverty and the change in the trend makes few experts feel the onset of ‘feminization’ of poverty,” the News quoted her as saying.

She said that religious and ethnic conflicts, along with the dehumanising attitude towards women, the extended family system, and role of in-laws, represented major issues and stressors.

“Gender discrimination at each stage of the female life cycle contributes to health disparity, sex selective abortions, neglect of girl children, reproductive mortality, and poor access to healthcare for girls and women,” Niaz added.

The risk of depression in women was higher during the childbearing years and even after childbirth. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: childbearing years, cultural practices, depression anxiety, economic reforms, ethnic conflicts, extreme poverty, feminization of poverty, gender discrimination, girl children, health disparity, Islamabad, karo kari, mental health problems, one billion, pakistani women, psychiatric associations, selective abortions, societal attitudes, stressors, substance use