For the study, the team of researchers led by Dr Paul Whalen selected subjects diagnosed with GAD, who underwent brain scans both before and after treatment with venlafaxine, an antidepressant that is believed to be effective in treating anxiety.

During the fMRI scans, the researchers also measured the participants’ responses to viewing pictures of fearful facial expressions.

“We focused our study on a regulatory circuit in the brain involving the amygdala, an area that serves to detect the presence of threatening information, and the prefrontal cortex, an area that functions to control these threat responses when they are exaggerated or unnecessary,” said Whalen.

The findings revealed that about two thirds of the patients experienced relief from their anxiety symptoms after treatment, and of those who improved, some responded better than others. The fMRI data predicted who would do well on the drug and who would not.

Controlling weight gain

After-school programmes, in addition to school physical education classes, may be one answer to reducing obesity in teenage girls, says a new study.

The middle school years is the time when time kids spend begin to spend less time in physical activity, a growing
concern as youth obesity rates rise.

The just-released results of the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG) showed that moderate to vigorous after-school physical activity, in programs that can range from hip hop dancing to surfing, can modestly increase the amount of physical activity for young teenage girls, to the point that it could prevent excess weight gain of about two pounds per year. If sustained, that extra activity could prevent a girl from becoming overweight as a teenager or adult.

Heavy earrings harmful

They might be giving you that ‘stylish edge’ over others, but according to doctors your most beloved accessories — heavy earrings — can be a dangerous ornament from which more and more women are seeking surgery.
At first, patients with tears in their earlobes from wearing heavy earrings are told to simply stop wearing them in order to let the lobe heal on its own, but often that doesn’t work.

“Just removing the earring often times does not allow the hole to close because that has become a mature tract,” says Richard Ha, plastic surgeon on the medical staff at Baylor University Medical Centre at Dallas.
“Fortunately, there’s a relatively simple solution to the problem,” he added.

According to plastic surgeons, it’s becoming more and more popular for patients to get their lobes surgically repaired.

Medication for JRA

A new study has shed light on the effectiveness of medication given to children with juvenile rheumatoid
arthritis (JRA), often thought to be incapable of treating the disease.

Children with JRA are being treated with the same drugs prescribed to adults with inflammatory diseases including corticosteroids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) such as methotrexate (MTX).

However, these medications fail to improve disease activity for many children with JRA.
Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) plays a key role in the inflammatory process. In the past decade, TNF-blockers have brought dramatic gains in treatment for rheumatoid arthritis patients. Etanercept, the only FDA-approved biologic for JRA patients until very recently, has also been proven highly effective and safe for children in
short-term trials.

Mums mum at TV time

When infants in low socio-economic households are exposed to television and video, their mothers are less likely to interact with them, says a new study.

The study led by Dr Alan L Mendelsohn, department of pediatrics, NYU School of Medicine, assessed the parent-infant interactions related to specific media content. The study showed that when programming was educational and co-viewed by both mother and infant in each other’s presence, the interactions increased. However, it did reveal that the educational programming did not promote co-viewing, a factor that contributes to verbal interactions.

“Our conclusions are significant because parent-infant interactions have huge ramifications for early child development, as well as school advancement and success during adolescence,” said Mendelsohn.