Healthcare News and Research

[*Anya*]

I should have added this to the post I made earlier on the article being published in JAMA.

I try to only post studies from reputable, peer reviewed journals or if simply an article, one from an established news source.

That the study referenced by research gate, had over 145 thousand children from conception up to age 10, from the Quebec Pregnancy Cohort and published in JAMA Pediatrcs; is critically important and this information will be difficult to overlook by the naysayers.

[*Anya*]

Medscape Medical News

FDA Campaign Aims to Help Young LGBT Adults Stop Smoking

Pauline Anderson
May 02, 2016

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a smoking prevention campaign aimed at young adult lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) persons who are occasional users of tobacco.

Young adult LGBT persons are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as other young adults, said Mitch Zeller, JD, director, Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), FDA, during a press briefing to announce the campaign, called This Free Life.

Of the more than 2 million LGBT persons aged 18 to 24 years in the United States, more than 800,000 are occasional or so-called social smokers, according to Dr Zeller.

"Unfortunately, research tells us that LGBT young adults often don't consider themselves to be smokers and don't understand the associated health risks."

The campaign, said Dr Zeller, "is aimed at making LGBT young adults aware that there is no safe amount of smoking and that even an occasional cigarette can have serious health implications and lead to addiction."

The range of negative health outcomes from smoking, such as cancer, heart disease, and respiratory illnesses, can disproportionately affect minority groups such as the LGBT community, said Richard Wolitski, PhD, acting director of the Office for HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy, US Department of Health and Human Services, during the briefing.

Dr Wolitski, a gay man living with HIV, said he has worked for 30 years to improve gay men's health and prevent HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, and hepatitis infections.

"I have lost too many people to HIV in my life, and I don't want to lose any more due to tobacco use."

The impact of smoking has hit close to home for him ― his husband's father died from lung cancer as a consequence of smoking.

Coming Out

Research shows that LGBT youth "come out" at about the age of 18 years. The coming out process can be stressful and "contribute to actual or perceived social stigma, discrimination, and anxiety," said Dr Wolitski.

"It's a period of increased vulnerability, which can lead to tobacco use and other behaviors with negative health consequences."

Many LGBT young adults find a sense of community at LGBT bars and clubs that sometimes provide an environment conducive to tobacco use. Also, some influential LGBT persons, community bloggers, and YouTube personalities openly promote smoking, "establishing tobacco use as a norm within the LGBT community," said Dr Wolitski.

partnered with persons of influence in the community to challenge the perception that tobacco use is a necessary part of LGBT culture, said Dr Zeller.

The $35.7 million campaign, which will use digital and social media and will include some dating sites, will target 12 markets across the United States in which there is a high concentration of LGBT young adults and where the prevalence of smoking is relatively high.

The $35.7 million campaign is being funded by user fees collected from the tobacco industry, not by taxpayer dollars.


http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/862738

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsro.../ucm498544.htm

[Jesse]

Oops didn't mean to post this here. lol I'll move it.

[*Anya*]

The superbug that doctors have been dreading just reached the U.S.

By Lena H. Sun and Brady Dennis May 27 at 1:50 PM

CRE, a family of bacteria pictured here, is considered one of the deadliest superbugs because it causes infections that are often resistant to most antibiotics. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Reuters)
For the first time, researchers have found a person in the United States carrying bacteria resistant to antibiotics of last resort, an alarming development that the top U.S. public health official says could mean “the end of the road” for antibiotics.

The antibiotic-resistant strain was found last month in the urine of a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman. Defense Department researchers determined that she carried a strain of E. coli resistant to the antibiotic colistin, according to a study published Thursday in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology. The authors wrote that the discovery “heralds the emergence of a truly pan-drug resistant bacteria.”

Colistin is the antibiotic of last resort for particularly dangerous types of superbugs, including a family of bacteria known as CRE, which health officials have dubbed “nightmare bacteria.” In some instances, these superbugs kill up to 50 percent of patients who become infected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called CRE among the country’s most urgent public health threats.

Health officials said the case in Pennsylvania, by itself, is not cause for panic. The strain found in the woman is still treatable with other antibiotics. But researchers worry that its colistin-resistance gene, known as mcr-1, could spread to other bacteria that can already evade other antibiotics.

It’s the first time this colistin-resistant strain has been found in a person in the United States. In November, public health officials worldwide reacted with alarm when Chinese and British researchers reported finding the colistin-resistant strain in pigs and raw pork and in a small number of people in China. The deadly strain was later discovered in Europe and elsewhere.

“It basically shows us that the end of the road isn’t very far away for antibiotics — that we may be in a situation where we have patients in our intensive care units, or patients getting urinary-tract infections for which we do not have antibiotics,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in an interview Thursday.

“I’ve been there for TB patients. I’ve cared for patients for whom there are no drugs left. It is a feeling of such horror and helplessness,” Frieden added. “This is not where we need to be.”

Separately, researchers at the Agriculture Department and the Department of Health and Human Services reported that testing of hundreds of livestock and retail meats turned up the same colistin-resistant bacteria in a sample from a pig intestine in the United States. USDA said it is working to identify the farm the pig came from.

CDC officials are working with Pennsylvania health authorities to interview the patient and family to identify how she may have contracted the bacteria, including reviewing recent hospitalizations and other health-care exposures. The CDC hopes to screen the patient and her contacts to see if others might be carrying the organism. Local and state health departments also will be collecting cultures as part of the investigation.

The woman was treated in an outpatient military facility in Pennsylvania, according to a Defense Department blog post about the findings. Samples were sent to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for initial testing. Additional testing was done by a special Defense Department system that tracks multi-drug-resistant organisms.

Thursday’s study did not disclose further details about the Pennsylvania woman or the outcome of her case. The authors could not be reached for comment. A spokesman at the Pennsylvania Department of Health was not immediately available to comment on the case.

NOTE: rest of article can be found with link



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...national_pop_b

[*Anya*]

Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology:
June 2015 - Volume 35 - Issue 3 - p 273–278
doi: 10.1097/JCP.0000000000000300


Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction: Clinical Characterization and Preliminary Assessment of Contributory Factors and Dose-Response Relationship

Contributors: Ben-Sheetrit, Joseph MD*; Aizenberg, Dov MD*†; Csoka, Antonei B. PhD‡; Weizman, Abraham MD*†; Hermesh, Haggai MD*†

Abstract:

Emerging evidence suggests that sexual dysfunction emerging during treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and/or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) persists in some patients beyond drug discontinuation (post-SSRI sexual dysfunction [PSSD]). We sought to identify and characterize a series of such cases and explore possible explanatory factors and exposure-response relationship.

Subjects who responded to an invitation in a forum dedicated to PSSD filled out a survey via online software. Case probability was defined according to the following 3 categories of increasing presumed likelihood of PSSD. Noncases did not meet the criteria for possible cases.

Possible cases were subjects with normal pretreatment sexual function who first experienced sexual disturbances while using a single SSRI/SNRI, which did not resolve upon drug discontinuation for 1 month or longer as indicated by Arizona Sexual Experience Scale scores.

High-probability cases were also younger than 50-year-olds; did not have confounding medical conditions, medications, or drug use; and had normal scores on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

Five hundred thirty-two (532) subjects completed the survey, among which 183 possible cases were identified, including 23 high-probability cases. Female sex, genital anesthesia, and depression predicted current sexual dysfunction severity, but dose/defined daily dose ratio and anxiety did not.

Genital anesthesia did not correlate with depression or anxiety, but pleasureless orgasm was an independent predictor of both depression and case probability.

Limitations of the study include retrospective design and selection and report biases that do not allow generalization or estimation of incidence.

However, our findings add to previous reports and support the existence of PSSD, which may not be fully explained by alternative nonpharmacological factors related to sexual dysfunction, including depression and anxiety.

http://journals.lww.com/psychopharma...&type=abstract

[*Anya*]

1 in 4 men have genital HPV infections that cause or are linked to cancer

Researchers suggest boosted vaccination as 45% of men overall had some type of HPV.

BETH MOLE - 1/20/2017, 11:31 AM

Nearly half of all men in the US have some type of genital human papillomavirus infection—and about 25 percent have a type linked to cancer, according to a study appearing Thursday in JAMA Oncology.

The study is the first to look at the prevalence of HPV among American men. Much of the past attention paid to HPV has focused on women, because the virus is the cause of nearly every case of cervical cancer in the US. For this reason, health experts have been recommending since 2006 that girls and young women get vaccinated against HPV.

Experts updated that recommendation to include boys and young men in 2011, but the new study shows that few are actually getting those shots—just 10 percent were vaccinated. But with the new prevalence data, the authors suggest that vaccinating men may not only prevent thousands of cancer cases, but it could also be key to stamping out cancer causing-HPV transmission overall.

In the US, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, with 79 million estimated cases. The virus infects skin cells and mucus membranes around the mouth, throat, genitals, and anus. It’s known to cause skin warts and several types of cancer. These include, as mentioned, nearly all cases of cervical cancers. But it also causes vaginal, penile, anal, throat, and mouth cancers.

The tricky thing about HPV and studying its prevalence is that not all types cause cancer. In fact, many cases cause no symptoms at all and clear up on their own—usually between six to 18 months. A lot of people won't even know that they're infected.

Scientists have found more than 100 strains of the virus and only around 18 or so are known to cause or are associated with cancers. That bunch is designated as “high-risk” strains. The “low-risk” strains are those that either come and go without notice or stick around and show up as warts. The latest vaccine can protect against nine strains, seven behind the vast majority of cancers and two that cause 90 percent of all warts.

To get a better grasp at HPV prevalence and types among American men, researchers analyzed penile swabs from a representative group of 1,868 men between the ages of 18 and 59. The researchers, led by cancer experts at the Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, found that about 45 percent had at least one type of HPV. That represents 34.8 million men nationwide.

DNA tests showed that 25 percent were infected with at least one type of high-risk strain.

The men also showed an unexpected pattern of infection. Among girls and women, those under the age of 20 are the most likely to be infected, with cases dropping off in the older age groups. But for men, incidence increased with age. In fact, the youngest group, 18 to 22 year olds, had the lowest prevalence of just 28.9 percent. This suggests that older men, as well as younger men, would benefit from vaccination.

The study comes on the heels of reports of increases in incidence of mouth and throat cancers among men, which are largely attributed to HPV infections. Although the study only looked for genital infections (not mouth or throat infections), the new data could offer a useful baseline for gauging the success of vaccination campaigns.

Overall, the study authors conclude that “male HPV vaccination may have a greater effect on HPV infection transmission and cancer prevention in men and women than previously estimated." Additionally, “only when vaccination rates are significantly increased will progress be made in eradicating most HPV-related cancers in the United States.”

JAMA Oncology, 2017. DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.6192 (About DOIs).

This post has been updated to add information about the current HPV vaccine.

BETH MOLE
Beth is Ars Technica’s health reporter. She’s interested in biomedical research, infectious disease, health policy and law, and has a Ph.D. in microbiology.

EMAIL beth.mole@arstechnica.com // TWITTER @Beth Marie Mole

http://arstechnica.com/science/2017/...ked-to-cancer/

[*Anya*]

NEWS RELEASES | RESEARCH | SOCIAL SCIENCE

February 13, 2017

New findings reveal health, aging experiences of LGBT older adults across nation

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers from the University of Washington’s School of Social Work have released new findings this month on the health and aging of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older adults in the U.S.

Approximately 2.7 million adults age 50 and older self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. This number is expected to increase to more than five million by 2060, yet this population is critically understudied. UW researchers have been working to change that through the first longitudinal study of LGBT older adults, called Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, Sexuality/Gender Study.

“It’s important to understand the health and well-being of LGBT older adults so we can take steps to reduce health disparities,” said principal investigator Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, professor and director of the UW’s Healthy Generations Hartford Center of Excellence.

“This research highlights pathways to better understand health for all marginalized communities.”

New findings from the longitudinal study, published in a 2017 supplement of The Gerontologist, will increase understanding of the challenges, strengths and needs of this growing yet underserved population. Funded by the National Institute on Aging, the research will help develop community-based interventions to improve the health and well-being of at-risk LGBT older adults.

The team surveyed 2,450 adults aged 50 to 100, studying the impact of historical, environmental, psychological, social, behavioral and biological factors on LGBT adult health and well-being. The 10 articles that make up the supplement focuses on three themes: influence of life events; diversity and subgroup differences; and processes and mechanisms underlying health and quality of life.

The findings reported in the supplement revealed that LGBT older adults are both resilient and at-risk, with higher rates of disability, cardiovascular disease, depression and social isolation. The findings documented how key life events ― including coming out, work and relationships ― are associated with health and quality of life. Articles examined factors such as race/ethnicity, partnership status, resiliency among HIV-positive gay and bisexual men, and transgender older adults with prior military service. The role of social networks, mental health, high-risk alcohol consumption and health care engagement were also studied.

“The insights gleaned from this study of aging among LGBT older adults can deepen our understanding of the richness, diversity and resilience of lives across the life course,” Fredriksen-Goldsen said. “As we move forward in aging-related research, services and policies, it’s important to understand that these communities are diverse, and that unique groups face distinct challenges to their health.”

###

For more information, contact Fredriksen-Goldsen at fredrikk@uw.edu or 206-543-5722.

http://www.washington.edu/news/2017/...across-nation/