June 24, 2008
To create an eating-disordered teen: Turn on MTV, then call her chubby
The largest, longest-running study of disordered eating among adolescents and teenagers shows that about 10% of girls and 3% of boys binge eat, purge, or both at least weekly in order to lose weight. Data come from about 11,000 children of women in the national Nurses Health Study II.
A large group of girls who purge without binge eating are going unrecognized, the authors suggest, because they don’t fit current diagnostic criteria.
The study set out to define predictors of disordered eating. These include
* teasing about weight,
* maternal history of eating disorder (but only for adolescent girls), and
* also for girls, wanting to look like young women in the media.
They urge that young women at risk should be educated about issues of media and body image.
Related Searches
bulimia nervosa
binge eating disorder
Research/Reviews
The results show that adolescent girls are at greater risk if their mothers were affected. What is the evidence about heritability of eating disorders?
Evidence-based Articles
The new study adds to already solid evidence that teasing about weight breeds eating disorders and other emotional problems.
No Comments » | 
Adolescent, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry | Tagged: eating disorder, media, teasing | 
Permalink
Posted by smnewsletters
June 24, 2008
Increase in body piercings causes headaches for health providers
Doctors should prepare for the consequences as piercing of body parts other than earlobes gains in popularity, according to a government-sponsored study in the UK.
About one in ten adults has had something other than an earlobe or two pierced, the study found. Navels were the most common site (reported by one teen girl in three, with complications in one-third of those cases). Oral piercings are on the increase.
A startling one piercing in ten took place outside a specialist piercing shop. There was at least one report of piercing by self or a friend for every body part mentioned in the study, including nipples and genitals.
One body piercing in 100 ended in hospitalization.
These data confirm and expand on similar results from the United States.
Related searches
auricular perichondritis
tattoos
Research/Reviews
There are numerous reports about the risks that body piercing may cause viral hepatitis.
No Comments » | 
Adolescent, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Uncategorized | Tagged: body piercing, hepatitis, tattoos | 
Permalink
Posted by smnewsletters
June 10, 2008
Any antipsychotic triples risk of serious events for elderly with dementia
Giving antipsychotics of any kind to an elderly person with dementia, even briefly, increases the risk of death or hospitalization by three or four times, according to a new longitudinal study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The study of over 40,000 elderly Canadians, equally divided between those living in nursing homes and those in the community, compared people who took antipsychotics with those who did not. The authors felt they have identified only the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of adverse events.
Research/Reviews
The risk of serious consequences in this study is considerably larger than in earlier studies that compared typical and atypical antipsychotics among the elderly.
Another recent study has found non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) of no value in preventing cognitive decline in Alzheimer dementia.
Clinical Trials
What’s happening in research using statins to treat Alzheimer disease?
No Comments » | 
Dementia, Geriatrics, Uncategorized | Tagged: antipsychotics, Dementia, elderly | 
Permalink
Posted by smnewsletters
