The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| When drugs for depression fail, talking therapies help Posted: 07 Dec 2012 06:51 AM PST  A study finds that when antidepressant drugs fail, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) might help patients with depression to cope better. — Reuters pic In the first large-scale trial to test the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, alongside medication for depression, scientists said they found that the combination works where drug treatment alone fails. Nicola Wiles of Bristol University's school of social and community medicine, who led the study, said the findings underline the need to increase the availability of therapy for depressed patients. "While there have been initiatives to increase access to CBT in both the UK and Australia, worldwide initiatives are rare," she said in a statement. Wiles and colleagues recruited 469 adults from across Britain who had not responded to at least 6 weeks of treatment with an antidepressant. For the study, 235 patients continued with their usual antidepressant medication, while 234 patients got their usual care plus CBT and were followed up for 12 months. The results, published in The Lancet medical journal, showed that after 6 months, 46 per cent of those who got CBT as well as their usual care had improved — reporting at least a 50 per cent reduction in their depressive symptoms. This compared to 22 per cent of those who did not get CBT. Patients treated with CBT, which involves talking through behaviours and ways of thinking with a trained psychotherapist or psychologist, were also more likely to go into remission and have fewer symptoms of anxiety, the researchers said. Similar effects were reported at 12 months. Major depression affects around 20 per cent of people at some point in their lives. The World Health Organisation (WHO)predicts that by 2020, depression will rival heart disease as the health disorder with the highest global disease burden. While there are many antidepressants on the market, including top sellers such as Prozac and Seroxat, it is widely accepted that many antidepressants work in only half of patients half of the time, and drug makers are struggling to come up with a new generation of drugs in this field. Willem Kuyken, a clinical psychology professor at Exeter University who also worked on the study, said its results showed that doctors and patients should be looking beyond drugs. "This trial provides further evidence that psychological treatments like cognitive therapy can provide substantive and lasting help to people who suffer depression," he said. Wiles added, however, that even in wealthy countries such as Britain, where there has been a recent push to invest more into psychological therapies, many people who have not responded to antidepressants still don't get the chance of trying intensive CBT that take between 12 and 18 sessions. In the United States, only about a quarter of people with depression have received any form of psychological therapy in the last 12 months, she said. — Reuters |
| Study finds men more likely to die of cancers Posted: 07 Dec 2012 06:46 AM PST  Indian cancer patient Brijender Singh (R) is examined by Pankaj Chaturvedi (L) during a routine check-up at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. — AFP pic In an analysis of cases of all but sex-specific cancers such as prostate and ovarian cancer, for example, men were more likely than women to die in each of the past ten years, said researchers, whose findings appeared in The Journal of Urology. That translates to an extra 24,130 men dying of cancer in 2012 because of their gender. "This gap needs to be closed," said Shahrokh Shariat from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, who worked on the study. "It's not about showing that men are only doing worse and, 'poor men.' It's about closing gender differences and improving health care." Using US cancer registry data from 2003 through 2012, Shariat and his colleagues found the ratio of deaths to cancer diagnoses decreased 10 per cent over the past decade —but was consistently higher among men than women. Overall, men with any type of cancer were six per cent more likely to die of their disease than women with cancer. When men and women with the same type of cancer were compared, that rose to more than 12 per cent. In 2012, Shariat's team calculated that about 575,130 men and 457,240 women would be diagnosed with a non-sex specific cancer. Also this year, an estimated 243,620 men will die of cancer - one death for every 2.36 new diagnoses, compared to 182,670 women dying, or one for each 2.5 new diagnoses. "We found that from the 10 most common cancers in males and females... men present at a higher stage than females, and adjusted for the incidence, are more likely to die from the cancer," Shariat told Reuters Health. "If you take an average of the 10 most common cancers, men are more likely to die in seven out of the ten," he added. In contrast, women are more likely to die only from bladder cancer. The new study can't show what's behind the differences in cancer deaths, but possible theories include men's higher rates of smoking and drinking combined with less frequent doctor's visits — which cause men's cancers to be diagnosed in later, more advanced stages. Sex hormones may also contribute to differences in men's and women's immune systems, metabolism and general susceptibility to cancer, according to Yang Yang, a sociologist and cancer researcher from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who studies health disparities but wasn't part of the study. She said the new findings are consistent with work suggesting a higher risk of death for men from many causes, not just cancer. But a full understanding of the origins and mechanisms in sex differences in cancer, as well as overall mortality, has remained elusive," Yang told Reuters Health in an email. Shariat said men should be particularly proactive about their health care. "That means going to screening programs, seeing a general practitioner or primary care provider on a regular basis and as soon as symptoms arise that are new, mentioning that to their primary care physicians," he added. — Reuters |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan