Individuals with higher education levels appear to score higher on cognitive tests despite having evidence of brain plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new report. The so-called ‘cognitive reserve’ hypothesis holds that individuals with greater cognitive abilities are able to delay symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease despite underlying changes in the brain, according to [...]
The brains of individuals with major depressive disorder appear to react more strongly when anticipating pain and also display altered functioning of the neural network that modifies pain sensitivity, according to a new report. The report followed a study in which doctors investigated 15 young adults with major depressive disorder who were not taking medication [...]
Dr Carl Vaughan answers questions from GPs on hypertension in the penultimate instalment of our Ask the Consultant series 1. What is the risk to renal function with ARBs? Answer: Some physicians are worried about worsening renal function when they commence an ACE inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor antagonist (ARB). Studies suggest that the use [...]
Dr Bernadette Lynch and Dr Douglas J. Veale describe the types of remission in arthritis and the various methods of measuring outcomes. Inflammatory arthritides such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) affect two per cent to three per cent of the population and are associated with significant mortality, morbidity and economic costs. The [...]
Dr Muhammad Haroon, Dr Mark J. Phelan and Dr Michael J. Regan explain the definition and causes of vitamin D deficiency and look at some Irish studies which have examined rates of vitamin deficiency here Vitamin D deficiency is preventable and treatable. It can present with a spectrum of clinical manifestations, including non-specific musculoskeletal pain, [...]
Early detection and integrated care — the future for people with schizophrenia Dr Dominic Fannon writes on the prevalence and treatment of schizophrenia and the need for ‘joined-up’ treatment for patients. Schizophrenia is a clinical syndrome comprised of a variety of mental features including abnormal beliefs (exaggerated or delusional), faulty perceptions (hallucinations), disordered thought and [...]
Greg Baxter talks to Dr Ernest Choy — one of the world’s foremost experts in Rheumatoid Arthritis — who says new drugs offer hope for RA patients. Eight years ago, Dr Ernest Choy was studying anti-TNF treatments for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at a clinical trials unit at King’s College London – a unit [...]
Mothers with any form of serious mental illness are more likely to have children who are stillborn or who die within the first month, new research has found. The links between the causes of stillbirth and newborn death, however, depend on the type of mental illness the mother has, the research shows. The researchers looked [...]
June Shannon talks to Mr Vincent Young, Consultant in Cardiothoracic surgery at St James’s Hospital about lung cancer treatment and the need to diagnose lung cancer at an early stage. The latest figures from the National Cancer Registry, ‘Cancer in Ireland 1994-2005: a summary’, revealed that in 2004 1,606 people died from lung cancer. Of [...]
At a recent clinical meeting in Dublin, those present heard about the epidemiology of generalised anxiety disorder and about some evidence-based treatments for the condition. Prof Christer Algulander, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden gave an update on diagnosis, cognition and treatment options for generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), to the ‘Flooded with Worry’ meeting in Dublin on [...]
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