Month: February 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — The largest genetic study of mental illnesses to date finds five major disorders may not look much alike but they share some gene-based risks. The surprising discovery comes in the quest to unravel what causes psychiatric disorders and how to better diagnose and treat them.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Long after completing an 18-month program designed to teach about contraception and healthy relationships, teenage girls at high risk for unwanted pregnancy were using contraceptives more often and maintaining other safer sexual practices, according to a new study. Researchers in Minnesota tested an approach to preventing teen pregnancies that is based on providing access to birth control methods and information as well as building girls’ sense of connectedness to family and society. …

There’s reassuring news for pregnant women miserable with morning sickness: A very large study in Denmark finds no evidence that using a popular anti-nausea drug will harm their babies.

When she graduated from college, Allyson Raymond, 24, of Oakland, California, decided not to join her parents’ health insurance plan because the monthly cost was simply beyond what she could afford on her salary. “I went without any health insurance for several months, attending free clinics and such, but with my biking commute, working around children, and a scary string of random acts of violence, I started becoming concerned that something would happen to me and I wouldn’t be able to afford the medical bills,” explains Raymond.

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Tom Hardy wants to play a British soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder in "Samarkand," a project the actor is developing with Solar Pictures and Greg and Olly Williams, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap. The Williams brothers have written a draft of the screenplay, which revolves around a young Special Air Service soldier returning from duty in the Middle East. …

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – One-quarter of people taking niacin and statins as part of a four-year-long heart study dropped out early, often for medical reasons tied to niacin’s side effects, a new study suggests. Previous research hinted that niacin could boost HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels, but it was unclear whether the B-vitamin would improve heart health. The full data from the new study, which included 25,000 people in Europe and China, are being presented next month at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in San Francisco. …

An elementary school in Colorado is the subject of a civil rights complaint filed this week on behalf of a trangender 6-year-old. According to the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund , Eagleside Elementary School is violating the child’s civil rights by not allowing her to use the girls’ bathrooms. Here are the details.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gay and lesbian couples living together report poorer health than straight married couples, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday, speculating that legalizing same-sex marriage could reduce the disparities. Studies have shown that married couples enjoy better health than people who are single, divorced or separated. When Dr Hui Liu, an assistant professor of sociology at Michigan State University, and her team studied the health of gay and straight couples, they found marriage made a difference. …

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A calculation based on results from a large lung cancer screening trial projects that 12,000 deaths a year among the highest-risk smokers and ex-smokers in the U.S. could be avoided with a national screening program. The National Lung Screening Trial, published in 2010, found 20 percent fewer deaths from lung cancer in a group of people at highest risk for the disease when they were screened annually with CT scans, a form of high-resolution X-ray that can spot suspicious lung nodules. Based on the 8. …