Blood plasma from people recovering from COVID-19 could help prevent severe illness in older patients newly infected with the virus, a small new Argentinian study finds. The findings give new hope to the notion that so-called “convalescent plasma” might have a role to play in treating COVID-19. Earlier studies had been disappointing, showing the treatment had little effect on people with severe, advanced cases of COVID-19. But the new trial of 160 patients was conducted in people infected with the new coronavirus who were not yet sick enough to require hospital care. Patients averaged 77 years of age. In the trial, 80 patients received plasma and 80 received a placebo treatment. According to the study authors, “severe respiratory disease developed in 13 of 80 patients (16%) who received convalescent plasma and 25 of 80 patients (31%) who received placebo.” In other words, the treatment cut in half the likelihood that a patient would go on to require supplemental oxygen to help them breathe, the authors said. But there were two key factors critical for donor plasma to be effective in curbing illness: It had to be given within 72 hours of the onset of symptoms, and the plasma must have a high concentration of disease-fighting antibodies. In the study, about 28% of volunteers who’d recovered from COVID-19 and donated their plasma had achieved the high…  read on >  read on >

Blood plasma from people recovering from COVID-19 could help prevent severe illness in older patients newly infected with the virus, a small new Argentinian study finds. The findings give new hope to the notion that so-called “convalescent plasma” might have a role to play in treating COVID-19. Earlier studies had been disappointing, showing the treatment had little effect on people with severe, advanced cases of COVID-19. But the new trial of 160 patients was conducted in people infected with the new coronavirus who were not yet sick enough to require hospital care. Patients averaged 77 years of age. In the trial, 80 patients received plasma and 80 received a placebo treatment. According to the study authors, “severe respiratory disease developed in 13 of 80 patients (16%) who received convalescent plasma and 25 of 80 patients (31%) who received placebo.” In other words, the treatment cut in half the likelihood that a patient would go on to require supplemental oxygen to help them breathe, the authors said. But there were two key factors critical for donor plasma to be effective in curbing illness: It had to be given within 72 hours of the onset of symptoms, and the plasma must have a high concentration of disease-fighting antibodies. In the study, about 28% of volunteers who’d recovered from COVID-19 and donated their plasma had achieved the high…  read on >  read on >

Blood plasma from people recovering from COVID-19 could help prevent severe illness in older patients newly infected with the virus, a small new Argentinian study finds. The findings give new hope to the notion that so-called “convalescent plasma” might have a role to play in treating COVID-19. Earlier studies had been disappointing, showing the treatment had little effect on people with severe, advanced cases of COVID-19. But the new trial of 160 patients was conducted in people infected with the new coronavirus who were not yet sick enough to require hospital care. Patients averaged 77 years of age. In the trial, 80 patients received plasma and 80 received a placebo treatment. According to the study authors, “severe respiratory disease developed in 13 of 80 patients (16%) who received convalescent plasma and 25 of 80 patients (31%) who received placebo.” In other words, the treatment cut in half the likelihood that a patient would go on to require supplemental oxygen to help them breathe, the authors said. But there were two key factors critical for donor plasma to be effective in curbing illness: It had to be given within 72 hours of the onset of symptoms, and the plasma must have a high concentration of disease-fighting antibodies. In the study, about 28% of volunteers who’d recovered from COVID-19 and donated their plasma had achieved the high…  read on >  read on >

Hope may help prevent you from doing things that aren’t good for you, a new study claims. The investigators wanted to find out why some people are more likely to fall into risky behaviors, such as gambling, drinking too much, taking drugs and overeating. To do this, the team at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom focused on something called relative deprivation, which is when a person feels that other people have things better in life. “I think most people have experienced relative deprivation at some point in their lives. It’s that feeling of being unhappy with your lot, the belief that your situation is worse than others, that other people are doing better than you, ” said researcher Shahriar Keshavarz, from East Anglia’s School of Psychology. “Relative deprivation can trigger negative emotions, like anger and resentment, and it has been associated with poor coping strategies, like risk taking, drinking, taking drugs or gambling,” he explained in a university news release. “But not everyone scoring high on measures of relative deprivation makes these poor life choices. We wanted to find out why some people seem to cope better, or even use the experience to their advantage to improve their own situation,” Keshavarz said. “There is a lot of evidence to show that remaining hopeful in the face of adversity can be advantageous,…  read on >  read on >

Hope may help prevent you from doing things that aren’t good for you, a new study claims. The investigators wanted to find out why some people are more likely to fall into risky behaviors, such as gambling, drinking too much, taking drugs and overeating. To do this, the team at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom focused on something called relative deprivation, which is when a person feels that other people have things better in life. “I think most people have experienced relative deprivation at some point in their lives. It’s that feeling of being unhappy with your lot, the belief that your situation is worse than others, that other people are doing better than you, ” said researcher Shahriar Keshavarz, from East Anglia’s School of Psychology. “Relative deprivation can trigger negative emotions, like anger and resentment, and it has been associated with poor coping strategies, like risk taking, drinking, taking drugs or gambling,” he explained in a university news release. “But not everyone scoring high on measures of relative deprivation makes these poor life choices. We wanted to find out why some people seem to cope better, or even use the experience to their advantage to improve their own situation,” Keshavarz said. “There is a lot of evidence to show that remaining hopeful in the face of adversity can be advantageous,…  read on >  read on >

Hope may help prevent you from doing things that aren’t good for you, a new study claims. The investigators wanted to find out why some people are more likely to fall into risky behaviors, such as gambling, drinking too much, taking drugs and overeating. To do this, the team at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom focused on something called relative deprivation, which is when a person feels that other people have things better in life. “I think most people have experienced relative deprivation at some point in their lives. It’s that feeling of being unhappy with your lot, the belief that your situation is worse than others, that other people are doing better than you, ” said researcher Shahriar Keshavarz, from East Anglia’s School of Psychology. “Relative deprivation can trigger negative emotions, like anger and resentment, and it has been associated with poor coping strategies, like risk taking, drinking, taking drugs or gambling,” he explained in a university news release. “But not everyone scoring high on measures of relative deprivation makes these poor life choices. We wanted to find out why some people seem to cope better, or even use the experience to their advantage to improve their own situation,” Keshavarz said. “There is a lot of evidence to show that remaining hopeful in the face of adversity can be advantageous,…  read on >  read on >

Hope may help prevent you from doing things that aren’t good for you, a new study claims. The investigators wanted to find out why some people are more likely to fall into risky behaviors, such as gambling, drinking too much, taking drugs and overeating. To do this, the team at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom focused on something called relative deprivation, which is when a person feels that other people have things better in life. “I think most people have experienced relative deprivation at some point in their lives. It’s that feeling of being unhappy with your lot, the belief that your situation is worse than others, that other people are doing better than you, ” said researcher Shahriar Keshavarz, from East Anglia’s School of Psychology. “Relative deprivation can trigger negative emotions, like anger and resentment, and it has been associated with poor coping strategies, like risk taking, drinking, taking drugs or gambling,” he explained in a university news release. “But not everyone scoring high on measures of relative deprivation makes these poor life choices. We wanted to find out why some people seem to cope better, or even use the experience to their advantage to improve their own situation,” Keshavarz said. “There is a lot of evidence to show that remaining hopeful in the face of adversity can be advantageous,…  read on >  read on >

It may be no surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic is causing some Americans significant psychological distress. That mental trauma hit people hard, even early in the pandemic, new research shows. A new RAND Corporation study reports that more than 10% of Americans surveyed said they experienced psychological distress during April and May of 2020 — the same number as in all of 2019. “Elevated psychological distress has been observed during prior disasters, but it has never before been seen as a persistent and complex stressor affecting the entire U.S. population,” said lead author Joshua Breslau, a senior behavioral scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. “Policymakers should consider targeting services to population groups at high risk for elevated psychological distress during the pandemic, including people vulnerable to the economic consequences of social distancing,” he said in a RAND news release. The survey was based on responses from a nationally representative online panel. In February 2019, 2,555 participants responded; in May 2020, 1,870 did. Participants were asked about their level of psychological distress at various points during the preceding year. About 11% of participants to the second survey reported experiencing serious psychological distress in the past month, up from 10.2% in the 2019 survey. People who were distressed prior to the pandemic were more likely to report distress during the pandemic. Only about 3% of people…  read on >  read on >