Antipsychotics can substantially increase dementia patients’ risk of many serious health problems, a new study warns. Dementia patients prescribed antipsychotics have increased risk of stroke, blood clots, heart attack, heart failure, bone fractures, pneumonia and kidney damage, researchers reported April 17 in the BMJ. “A move away from the overprescription of antipsychotics is overdue,” concluded the research team led by Pearl Mok, a research fellow with the University of Manchester in England. The study adds impetus to an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services into the overuse of antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes. The investigation, announced last year, was launched in response to reports that some nursing homes might be falsely labeling patients as schizophrenic so they can be given antipsychotic drugs. For the new study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 174,000 people in England diagnosed with dementia between January 1988 and May 2018, at an average age of 82. More than 35,500 of those dementia patients had been prescribed an antipsychotic, and their health profiles were compared against up to 15 randomly selected patients who hadn’t used an antipsychotic. Antipsychotic use more than doubled the risk of pneumonia among dementia patients, researchers found. About 4.5% of dementia patients on antipsychotic drugs wound up developing pneumonia within three months of starting the meds, versus 1.5%  of non-users. The drugs were also…  read on >  read on >

Zepbound, one of the wildly popular weight-loss drugs that millions of Americans now take, eased sleep apnea in obese adults in two company trials, drug maker Eli Lilly announced Wednesday. First approved to treat obesity by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last November, Zepbound’s power was significant: It reduced sleep apnea severity by nearly two-thirds in patients. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) “impacts 80 million adults in the U.S., with more than 20 million living with moderate-to-severe OSA. However, 85% of OSA cases go undiagnosed and therefore untreated,” Dr. Jeff Emmick, senior vice president of product development at Lilly, said in a company news release announcing the results. “Addressing this unmet need head-on is critical, and while there are pharmaceutical treatments for the excessive sleepiness associated with OSA, tirzepatide [Zepbound] has the potential to be the first pharmaceutical treatment for the underlying disease,” he added. Importantly, the results have not yet been published in a medical journal. In the two studies, researchers looked at whether Zepbound worked better than a placebo in reducing how many times per hour, on average, a person partly or fully stopped breathing while sleeping. In the first study, sleep apnea patients did not use CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines, which blow air into the airway to keep it from collapsing during sleep. Patients in the second study did use the machines. After 52 weeks, Zepbound…  read on >  read on >

Most folks think of blinking as the eyes’ version of windshield wipers, clearing the eye of debris and maybe lubricating it, too. But blinking is much more than that, researchers report: It also helps the brain process what it’s seeing. That’s perhaps counterintuitive: Wouldn’t it make sense to not blink, so eyes are receiving an uninterrupted stream of information? Already, scientists have long known that people blink far more often than is needed just to moisten the eye. Investigating further, a team led by Michele Rucci, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, tracked the eye movements of folks looking at different types of stimuli. They combined that data with computer modeling and found that blinking enhances a person’s ability to track “big, gradually changing patterns” in a visual field, according to a university news release. Blinking does so by altering light patterns as they strike and stimulate the eye’s retina. It creates a different kind of ‘visual signaling’ than would occur if eyes simply remained open at all times, the researchers explained. So, “contrary to common assumption, blinks improve — rather than disrupt– visual processing, amply compensating for the loss in stimulus exposure,” said study first author Bin Yang, a graduate student working in Rucci’s lab. The findings, published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science,…  read on >  read on >

Tapping the power of the small brain region called the cerebellum could improve patients’ ability to move cutting-edge robotic limbs, a new study suggests. The cerebellum is an ancient structure located under the brain, just above where the spinal cord connects to the brain. This structure has largely been overlooked by prosthetics researchers in favor of the cerebral cortex, which is the outermost layer of tissue covering the brain, researchers noted. But lab studies with rats show that the cerebellum can play a key role in controlling the movement of objects using brain waves. “The cerebellum has a well-known role in movement but has been ignored in neuroprosthetic research,” said researcher Tanuj Gulati, an assistant professor of biomedical sciences and neurology at the Cedars-Sinai Center for Neural Science and Medicine, in Los Angeles. “We are the first to record what is happening in the cerebellum as the brain learns to manipulate these devices, and we found that its involvement is essential for device use,” Gulati added in a Cedars-Sinai news release. Currently, experimental robot devices are controlled with brain waves through electrodes permanently implanted in regions of the cerebral cortex known to help manage movement of the human body. This technique has allowed patients to control robot limbs, motorized wheelchairs and computer keyboards, researchers noted. To see how the cerebellum contributes to motor control, researchers…  read on >  read on >

Doctors sometimes prescribe antibiotics to help treat a cough, but a new study shows the drugs won’t help reduce the severity or duration of coughing — even if a bacterial infection is the culprit. Lower respiratory tract infections that cause coughing have the potential to become more dangerous, with 3% to 5% of these patients suffering from pneumonia, said lead researcher Dr. Dan Merenstein, a professor of family medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine, in Washington, D.C. “But not everyone has easy access at an initial visit to an X-ray, which may be the reason clinicians still give antibiotics without any other evidence of a bacterial infection,” Merenstein said in a Georgetown news release. This has led some patients to expect antibiotics for a cough, Merenstein said. To see if antibiotics make any difference, researchers tracked their use in people presenting with lower respiratory tract infections. About 29% of people were prescribed an antibiotic during their initial medical visit, but the drugs had no effect on their cough compared to those who didn’t get a prescription. It also took the same amount of time for people to get over their infection, whether or not they got an antibiotic — about 17 days. The new study was published April 15 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Overuse of antibiotics is increasing the risk that…  read on >  read on >

Among U.S. women with migraine, a third say the attacks tend to coincide with their periods, a new survey finds. Migraines that occur during menstruation are often frequent and severe, but only about one in five respondents said they used medications aimed at preventing the headaches. “If you have migraines related to your menstrual cycle, discuss this with your gynecologist or neurologist. There are treatments that can help and if the first treatment tried does not work, do not give up,” said study lead author Dr. Jessica Ailani. She’s professor of clinical neurology at Georgetown University School of Medicine. The new study was funded by Pfizer, which makes a migraine medication. The findings are slated to be presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, in Denver. Ailani and her colleagues looked at data collected from adult women with migraine as part of the  2021 U.S. National Health and Wellness Survey. They found that a third of the women said their migraines often occurred during their periods. In more than half of these cases (52.5%), the women were premenopausal. Migraines occurred frequently during menstrual periods — an average of 8.4 headache days per month — and they were often severe, with just over 56% of women ranking their severity as moderate-to–severe on a standard scale. Many women attempted to treat the…  read on >  read on >

Lucid episodes are an unexpected occurrence among people with late-stage Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. But these spontaneous events — in which a person temporarily regains an ability to communicate that appeared to be permanently lost — are not always a sign of impending death, a recent study argues. Half the time, people live more than six months following their lucid episode, results show. Another third of the time, the person lives a week to six months after a lucid episode. This runs contrary to prior research that indicated these episodes might signal imminent death, said lead researcher Joan Griffin, with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “It’s important for people to know that these are not necessarily harbingers for death,” Griffin said in a Mayo news release.  “I think people can get anxious when they happen, so it’s good to know that there are different kinds of episodes that don’t necessarily mean death is imminent.” The new study is also the first to identify four different types of lucid episode that can occur. The most common is preceded by a visit with family or friends, and occurs among people who continued to live longer than six months after the episode, researchers said. About 33% of patients experienced this type of lucid episode. The least common occurs within a week of death, but also coincides with…  read on >  read on >

Rosacea is a common skin condition that causes redness on a person’s face. It commonly appears as a tendency to blush or flush more easily, but also can cause more serious symptoms like: Swollen skin. Skin that stings, burns or is very sensitive. Visible broken blood vessels. Acne-like breakouts. Oily skin. “With rosacea, there can be many triggers that will worsen symptoms or cause a flare-up,” said Dr. Lycia Thornburg, a board-certified dermatologist in Rapid City, S.D.. Still, “it’s possible to control your rosacea and even prevent it from getting worse by recognizing and avoiding triggers, ranging from alcohol to sunlight to the skin care products you use,” she added in an American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) news release. To help manage rosacea symptoms, Thornburg and the AAD recommend that people: Choose rosacea-friendly products. Look for products that say they are noncomedogenic, meaning they don’t clog pores and are made for sensitive skin. Avoid face products that contain alcohol, camphor, fragrance, glycolic acid, lactic acid, menthol, sodium laurel sulfate and urea. Test skin care products. Before using any products, test them on a quarter-sized patch of your skin on the inside of your arm every day for a week to 10 days. If your skin remains clear, that means the product most likely won’t cause a rosacea flare-up. Cleanse and moisturize. Avoid the temptation to…  read on >  read on >