A virtual reality program helped hoarders clear out their clutter, researchers report. Hoarding disorder, which strikes more than 2.5% of Americans, has only been defined as a mental health condition for 10 years, and it’s both debilitating and hard to treat. So, researchers at Stanford Medicine recently conducted a small pilot study to see if a newer technology — virtual reality — could help patients practice the steps they would need to take to manage their condition. In the tiny study, a majority of the patients — 7 of 9 — reported an average decrease in symptoms of about 25%. In addition, 8 of the 9 participants had less clutter in their homes after the sessions, with an average decrease of 15%. “Part of what is important in translating the promise of virtual reality into the real world is these small proof-of-concept studies to say, ‘Is it feasible? Are participants going to be able to engage with the technology?’ And that wasn’t immediately evident that it would in this population, so having the data was really important,” explained senior study author Dr. Carolyn Rodriguez. She is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford Medicine in California. Among the reasons why it was uncertain whether virtual reality (VR) would work for patients is that many people with hoarding disorder are older and may not…  read on >  read on >

While U.S. policymakers have restricted flavored vapes to make e-cigarettes less appealing to young people, that plan may be backfiring. A new study found that for every 0.7 milliliters of “e-liquid” for e-cigarettes that isn’t sold because of flavor restrictions, an additional 15 traditional cigarettes were sold. The study, supported by U.S. National Institutes of Health, uncovered evidence that these extra cigarettes were being sold in brands that are popular with people 20 and younger. Flavor restriction policies may actually magnify the harms of nicotine rather than help, the authors said. “While neither smoking nor vaping is entirely safe, current evidence indicates substantively greater health harm from smoking than vaping nicotine products,” said first author Abigail Friedman, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health. “These policies’ public health costs may outweigh their benefits,” she said in a university news release. Policymakers focused on vapes because of their fruity and dessert-like flavors, which could make them appealing to young people. An outbreak of vaping-associated lung injuries in 2019 led to at least 68 deaths and thousands of hospitalizations. This led to restriction of vapes, though the primary cause of the outbreak was an additive most common in cannabis vaping products, according to the Yale School of Public Health. To study the impact of restrictions on flavored e-cigarette products, researchers evaluated sales of both…  read on >  read on >

MONDAY, Oct. 23, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Scientists have long wondered whether depression leads to less sleep or whether a lack of sleep triggers depression. A new study suggests it’s the latter: Getting less than five hours of sleep a night may raise the risk of developing depressive symptoms. “We have this chicken or egg scenario between suboptimal sleep duration and depression, they frequently co-occur, but which comes first is largely unresolved. Using genetic susceptibility to disease we determined that sleep likely precedes depressive symptoms, rather than the inverse,” said lead author Odessa Hamilton, of University College London’s (UCL) Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care. Both sleep style and depression are partly inherited from one generation to the next. Earlier twin studies have suggested depression is about 35% genetic and that these inherited differences account for 40% of the variance in sleep duration. In this latest study, the researchers analyzed genetic and health data from more than 7,000 people who were an average age of 65. The investigators found that those with a stronger genetic predisposition to short sleep were more likely to develop depressive symptoms over four to 12 years. Meanwhile, people with a greater genetic predisposition to depression did not have an increased likelihood of short sleep. “Short and long sleep durations, along with depression, are major contributors to public health burden that are…  read on >  read on >

It’s well known that mothers can suffer postpartum depression, a condition that affects not only their well-being but also their child’s development. Now, new research finds that fathers can also experience depression after the births of their babies and this doubles their children’s odds of having three or more adverse childhood experiences before the age of 5. “There’s a number of things that motivated our study. The first was that father’s depression in the first year of life has already been shown to have other kinds of adverse effects on children, such as parenting difficulties or difficulties in child behavior later in life,” said study author Dr. Kristine Schmitz. She is an assistant professor of population health, quality improvement and implementation science at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. “We also at baseline know that depression in fathers is often unrecognized and yet can be quite prevalent, so it’s an important topic to pay attention to,” Schmitz added. For this study, Schmitz wanted to explore what the association between a father’s depression early in a child’s life might have with adverse childhood experiences later in life. Those experiences can include household dysfunction and child maltreatment. They can lead to future health and mental health issues, including well into adulthood. This can include poorer mental health, poorer school performance, obesity, asthma and high…  read on >  read on >

Climate change is bringing diseases once considered tropical afflictions to the United States, and new research warns that a parasite spread by sand flies may be the latest to join this growing list. The Leishmania parasite causes several forms of the disease leishmaniasis, including cutaneous leishmaniasis, which causes skin sores. Cutaneous leishmaniasis infects up to 1 million people each year, mainly in the Middle East, central Asia, northern Africa and Latin America. Another potentially life-threatening form of the disease, visceral leishmaniasis, affects the spleen, liver and bone marrow, and a new study suggests this form may be gaining a foothold in U.S. sand flies when they feed on infected dogs brought into the country by well-meaning dog rescue organizations. The findings were presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, in Chicago. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. “As our weather gets more erratic and the planet as a whole gets warmer and wetter, it becomes a much better place for these bugs to live and create disease,” said study author Christine Petersen, director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Iowa. “We need to up our game and remember these tropical diseases aren’t going to be so tropical anymore due to global warming,” she added. In addition to…  read on >  read on >

People who live alone have a greater risk of dying from cancer, a new study warns. Researchers from the American Cancer Society showed that U.S. adults who live alone had a 32% higher risk of cancer death than those who live with others. For men that was even higher, at 38% greater risk, while women living alone had a 30% higher risk. The data was particularly concerning for middle-aged adults, those ages 45 to 64, who had a 43% higher risk of cancer death than those living with others. “Previous studies have shown an association between living alone and cancer mortality, but findings by sex and race/ethnicity have generally been inconsistent, and data by socioeconomic status are sparse,” said study author Hyunjung Lee, principal scientist in cancer disparity research at the American Cancer Society. “Findings in this study underscore the significance of addressing living alone in the general population and among cancer survivors and call for interventions to reduce adverse effects of living alone and social isolation,” she said in a society news release. Researchers studied this using data from 1998 to 2019 for more than 473,000 adults from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey linked to the National Death Index. The data was followed for up to 22 years to calculate the association between living alone and cancer death. About 38 million households lived…  read on >  read on >

Stigma can take a toll on lesbian, gay and bisexual teens, leading to high rates of binge-eating disorders, researchers say. Compared to their non-LGBTQ peers, lesbian, gay and bisexual teens are more than twice as likely to report binge eating, according to a new study. Bullying, discrimination and stigma because of sexual orientation can be stressors that lead to poor self-esteem and disordered eating, explained lead study author Dr. Jason Nagata. He is an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. “Binge eating can result in psychological effects like depression and anxiety, and long-term physical health problems, including diabetes and heart disease,” Nagata added in a university news release. With binge eating, the individual frequently consumes unusually large amounts of food and feels unable to stop eating. It is the most common eating disorder in the United States, but is understudied and often misunderstood, according to background notes in the study. The researchers analyzed data from more than 10,000 adolescents aged 10 to 14 years old who were part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States. Data was from 2018 to 2020. Parents were asked about their children’s eating behaviors. Youths reported their sexual orientation. “Adolescents with eating disorders should seek professional help. Eating disorders are best…  read on >  read on >

Yellow fever may be resurfacing in the United States, thanks to climate change. The mosquito-borne viral illness decimated southern U.S. cities from 1820 to 1905, and now a new report says it could return to those areas. One of the potential reasons for a yellow fever resurgence? Global warming, because mosquitoes love warm, wet weather. Exactly where yellow fever may turn up in the United States is not known, but historically outbreaks occur in the southern U.S. along ports such as New Orleans, Galveston, Texas, and along the Mississippi River, said study author Dr. Peter Hotez. He is the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development in Houston. Symptoms of yellow fever range from a fever with aches and pains to severe liver disease with bleeding and yellowing skin (jaundice). There is no treatment or cure for yellow fever, but there is a vaccine available. “There has been an increase in small outbreaks of mosquito-transmitted infections such as malaria, dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus in the southern U.S., especially Florida and Texas,” Hotez explained. “Yellow fever has expanded from the Amazon region into a more populated area of Brazil, so there are concerns that it could also re-emerge here.” It’s time to expand mosquito-transmitted virus surveillance, especially in…  read on >  read on >

An inexpensive medication long used for depression and migraines now has a clinical trial to back up its off-label use for another condition that lowers quality of life: irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In the study, British researchers found that those taking amitriptyline were almost twice as likely as those taking a placebo to see an improvement in IBS symptoms. “We were delighted that the drug was both effective and safe for IBS when used at a low dose and titrated [slowly increased],” said Dr. Alexander Ford, a professor of gastroenterology at Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St. James’s at the University of Leeds. About 1 in 20 people worldwide live with the abdominal pain and bowel issues that are hallmarks of IBS, a chronic condition with no known cure. “IBS has a substantial impact in terms of affecting social activity, ability to work, out-of-pocket expenses and quality of life for sufferers,” Ford said. Although there are other treatments, most have only a modest impact, according to the study, with people often still suffering symptoms. “First-line treatments do not work for many patients with IBS, so there is a real unmet need as there are few other available therapies in the U.K. and the impact of IBS on the individual, health care systems and society as a whole is substantial,” Ford said. Amitriptyline is part…  read on >  read on >