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Study Pinpoints Links Of Depression With Chronic Pain
It is well known that chronic pain and clinical depression go together, but a study in The Journal of Pain, published by the American Pain Society, shows that the connection between pain and depression is strongest in middle-age women and African Americans.
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Georgia Receives More Than $60M In Ryan White Funding
Georgia has received $63.9 million in Ryan White Program grants to fund treatment and other services for people living with HIV, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Grant recipients include county health departments and community organizations. The funding will be used to provide outpatient health services, health insurance coverage and support services, such as transportation and housing. According to the Journal-Constitution, more than $1.79 billion in Ryan White funding was allocated nationwide. Several HIV/AIDS organizations said that the funding is necessary to continue providing services for people living with the disease. Tracy Elliot, executive director of AID Atlanta, said that the funding is "critical," noting that more than 18,000 HIV/AIDS cases have been reported in Georgia. He continued, "We would have a lot of deaths without [the funding]. There would be significantly more illnesses without it and significantly more transmission of the disease without it." According to Elliot, "[m]edical treatment and medications are of no value if people cannot have access to them" (Poole, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5/19).
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'Super-Recognizers,' With Extraordinary Face Recognition Ability, Never Forget A Face
Some people say they never forget a face, a claim now bolstered by psychologists at Harvard University who"ve discovered a group they call "super-recognizers": those who can easily recognize someone they met in passing, even many years later.
Public Health

Sedatives May Increase Suicide Risk In Older Patients

Sleeping tablets have been associated with a four-fold increase in suicide risk in the elderly. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Geriatrics have shown that, even after adjusting for the presence of psychiatric conditions, sedatives and hypnotics were both associated with an increased risk of suicide. Anders Carlsten and Margda Waern from Gothenburg University carried out a case control study to determine whether specific types of psychoactive drugs were associated with suicide risk in later life. According to Carlsten, "Sedative treatment was associated with an almost fourteen-fold increase of suicide risk in the crude analyses and remained an independent risk factor for suicide even after adjustment for the presence of mental disorders. Having a current prescription for a hypnotic was associated with a four-fold increase in suicide risk in the adjusted model". The researchers speculate that the drugs may raise suicide risk by triggering aggressive or impulsive behavior, or by providing the means for people to take an overdose. They also point out the possibility that these drugs may merely be markers for some other factor related to suicide risk, such as somatic illness, functional disability, alcohol use disorder, interpersonal problems, lack of social network or sleep disturbance. Carlsten said, "Persons with these problems might be more likely to seek health care and perhaps more likely to receive prescriptions for psychotropic drugs. However, given the extremely high prescription rates for these drugs, a careful evaluation of the suicide risk should always precede prescribing a sedative or hypnotic to an elderly individual". Reference: Are sedatives and hypnotics associated with increased suicide risk in the elderly? Anders Carlsten and Margda Waern BMC Geriatrics (in press) http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcgeriatr/ Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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