Treating Diabetes, Depression Together May Make Sense
Patients with depression and type 2 diabetes showed more improvement when they received simultaneous treatment for both conditions, researchers report.
Their 12-week study of 180 patients found that nearly 61 percent of those who received integrated care combined with a brief program to help them adhere to their medication regimens achieved improved blood sugar test results, and almost 59 percent had a reduction in depression symptoms.
Among patients who received usual primary care for the two conditions, nearly 36 percent had improved blood sugar test results and about 31 percent had a reduction in depression symptoms, said the researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
The study appears in the January/February issue of the journal Annals of Family Medicine.
There is a link between depression and diabetes, the researchers noted.
Hall Center welcomes health law expert Nicolas Terry as co-director, new faculty member
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law has announced the appointment of Nicolas Terry, leading authority in the intersection of medicine, law and information technology, as the Hall Render Professor of Law and co-director of the Hall Center for Law and Health.
Before joining the law school at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis on Jan. 1, Terry was the Chester A. Myers Professor of Law at Saint Louis University School of Law, where he taught torts, products liability, health information technology, law and science, and health care quality.
Nuns should go on the pill for anti-cancer protection
Lifelong nuns, like all women who never have children, are at an increased risk of dying from breast, ovarian and uterine cancers, compared with mothers.
Writing in The Lancet yesterday Roger Short from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Kara Britt of Monash University, Melbourne, call for nuns to be given the contraceptive pill to reduce their risk of reproductive cancers. New Scientist weighs up the evidence.
Are nuns more likely to get reproductive cancers than other women? Why?In 1969, it was found that nuns were more likely to die from breast, ovarian and uterine cancers than the general population.
DHEC reopens Battery Creek clam and oyster harvesting areas
COLUMBIA, S.C. –Clam and oyster harvesting areas along Battery Creek that were closed last month have been reopened, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported today.
“These areas have been reopened because water quality sampling results indicate bacteria levels are suitable for clam and oyster harvesting,” said Mike Pearson, manager of DHEC’s Shellfish Sanitation program.
For more information on clam and oyster harvesting areas in Beaufort County, call DHEC’s Region 8 Environmental Quality Control office at (843) 846-1030. For information on Georgetown and Horry counties’ clam and oyster harvesting areas, call DHEC’s Region 6 EQC office at (843) 238-4378. F