News

Increased funding of Medicaid mental health services and expansion of Medicaid's Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program in California resulted in increased delivery of mental health services, especially in rural areas and communities historically receiving low levels of funding, according to study findings published in the June issue of Medical Care.

Incidents of exercise-related sudden cardiac arrest in youths in the United States have generally resulted in poor survival during the past seven years, although a trend toward improved survival has developed recently, researchers report in the June issue of Heart Rhythm.

The 2007-2008 rotavirus season began three months later than usual and has been significantly milder, suggesting that 2006 recommendations for infants to be vaccinated at ages 2 months, 4 months and 6 months with the RotaTeq vaccine may be having an impact, according to an interim report issued June 25 in the early release edition of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Perinatal outcomes are significantly better when women with substance abuse problems receive treatment integrated with prenatal visits, according to research published online June 26 in the Journal of Perinatology.

It is becoming increasingly common for children to be identified with congenital long-QT syndrome because of family screening, and with appropriate therapy, survival is excellent among both probands and non-probands, according to a report published in the June 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

Federal safety officials announced one of the largest crib recalls in the nation's history, with retailers voluntarily pulling 320,000 items due to breaking slats or spindles that can cause injury.

The introduction of the recommended vaccine RotaTeq has coincided with a weaker rotavirus season this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the recently approved Rotarix should also be recommended, as reported by Reuters.

Summertime is associated with camping, sports, and other physically engaging activities for children. However, the more kids become active, the risk of injuries and other health issues increases accordingly. These facts and figures may be useful when speaking to parents about preventing summer injuries.

Mothers often engage in infant care practices that increase the risk of sudden infant death, including bed-sharing, placing infants in a prone position for sleep in a bassinet, or cluttering the bassinet with objects that can cause suffocation, according to two studies published online June 26 in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Adults with vascular dementia are more likely to have had lower cognitive ability scores in childhood than their counterparts without vascular dementia, although there is no association between lower childhood cognitive ability and risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to the results of a study published online June 25 in Neurology.

Behavioral assessment may not give an accurate picture of pain in infants because they may process pain at the cortical level and not exhibit any behavioral changes, according to research published in the June issue of PLoS Medicine.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given final approval for cetirizine hydrochloride syrup (Zyrtec), according to Taro Pharmaceutical Industries.

In patients with Marfan's syndrome, the use of angiotensin II-receptor blockers is associated with a significant decrease in the rate of progressive aortic-root dilation, according to the results of a small study published in the June 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

A mouse model of tuberous sclerosis, a disorder associated with mental retardation, autism and epilepsy, replicates some aspects of the disorder such as the defects in learning and memory, which can be reversed with a drug, according to study findings published online June 22 in Nature Medicine.

A subset of cells present in the epicardium, the epithelial sheet lying over the heart, can migrate into the heart and differentiate into cardiomyocytes, which could be used someday to repair the heart, according to the results of a study published online June 22 in Nature.

The postmarked Dear Doctor letter containing drug safety alerts may be going the way of the mimeograph, the buggy whip, and the 8-track.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new single vaccine for immunization against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, and Haemophilus influenzae type b, according to officials at sanofi pasteur.

The American College of Chest Physicians has published updated guidelines for the prevention, treatment and management of thrombosis in populations such as pregnant women, children and hospitalized patients in a supplement to the June issue of Chest.

Students in a positive social environment at school may be less likely to start smoking, as reported June 20 in the online journal BMC Public Health.

The creation of a country-wide injury surveillance system for unintentional child and adolescent injuries could help monitor risk and identify ways to reduce injuries in the United Kingdom, according to an editorial published in the June 21 issue of BMJ.

Influential doctors known as "key opinion leaders" are paid generous fees to influence their peers to prescribe a company's drugs and may in fact be considered salespeople by the industry, according to an article in the June 21 issue of BMJ.

Among asthmatics, influenza vaccination coverage is increasing but remains far below the Healthy People 2010 targets of 60 percent for persons aged 18 to 64 with high-risk conditions and 90 percent for all persons aged 65 and older, according to a report published in the June 20 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel has come out in favor of a request by Amgen Inc. to broaden the use of Enbrel to include moderate to severe child psoriasis.

Acting Surgeon General Steven Galson opened a two-day conference this week to form an action plan to prevent the national rise of premature infant births.

Only a small minority of U.S. physicians have electronic health record systems in their offices, with cost the most commonly cited barrier to adoption among those without access to a system, according to an article released online June 18 in advance of publication in the July 3 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

At the Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, researchers found positive results for an off-label treatment in a small study of early puberty in girls.

Maternity practices that could potentially interfere with breast-feeding are common in U.S. hospitals and birth centers, according to survey results published June 13 in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Blood pressure tracking from childhood to adulthood is useful because childhood blood pressure is correlated with blood pressure in adulthood, according to a report published online June 16 in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.