Give greater weight to mental health fall-out of future policies, urge researchers Suicides in Greece reached a 30 year all-time high in 2012, with a sustained upward trend starting in June 2011, the month that the government introduced further austerity measures to help pay down the country’s debts, reveals a 30 year study, published in […]
Category: In the news
Falls in blood pressure and cholesterol have saved 20,000+ lives in England
Impact of statins greatest among most affluent but drugs only accounted for 14% of total fall in deaths Falls in blood pressure and total cholesterol staved off more than 20,000 deaths from coronary heart disease in England between 2000 and 2007, shows a mathematical analysis published in BMJ Open. The impact of statins was greatest […]
UK doctors facing complaints dogged by severe depression and suicidal thoughts
UK doctors subject to complaints procedures are at significant risk of becoming severely depressed and suicidal, reveals research published in the online journal BMJ Open. Those referred to the UK professional regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC), seem to be most at risk of mental ill health, the findings suggest. The researchers base their findings […]
Few UK family doctors seem to be treating obesity/overweight appropriately
Patient health records suggest limited evidence of weight management in primary care Few UK family doctors seem to be treating overweight/obesity appropriately, with some not treating it all, suggests an analysis of patient records published in BMJ Open. The researchers scrutinised the anonymised health records of more than 90,000 obese and overweight adults, whose data […]
Concerns raised about variable performance of some UK personal use breathalysers
Ability of devices to detect potentially unsafe alcohol levels prompts questions about regulatory process The ability of some breathalysers widely sold to the UK public to detect potentially unsafe levels of breath alcohol for driving, varies considerably, reveals research published in BMJ Open. The findings call into question the regulatory process for approving these sorts […]
Less than half of UK prescriptions for antipsychotics issued for main licensed conditions
Less than half of UK prescriptions for antipsychotic drugs are being issued to treat the serious mental illnesses for which they are mainly licensed, reveals research published in BMJ Open. Instead, they may often be prescribed ‘off label’ to older people with other conditions, such as anxiety and dementia, despite the greater risk of potentially serious side effects in this age group, […]
Undergraduate bullying,skirt size and tobacco packaging: Most Read Articles in September
This month’s top ten most accessed articles includes a systematic review by Abu Dabrh et al. on the health assessment of commercial drivers, Marston et al’s study on anal sex and young people is still proving to be a popular read, Timm’s survey reporting on medical undergraduate students and bullying is a new entry, whilst Lusignan et al discuss patient’s online access […]
Moderate weekly alcohol intake linked to poorer sperm quality in healthy young men
Moderate alcohol intake of at least five units every week is linked to poorer sperm quality in otherwise healthy young men, suggests research published in the online journal BMJ Open. And the higher the weekly tally of units, the worse the sperm quality seems to be, the findings indicate, prompting the researchers to suggest that […]
Skirt size increase linked to 33% greater postmenopausal breast cancer risk
Going up a skirt size over a period of 10 years between your mid 20s and mid 50s is linked to a 33% greater risk of developing breast cancer after the menopause, finds a large observational study published in BMJ Open. Overall weight gain during adulthood is known to be a risk factor for breast cancer, […]
Gun deaths twice as high among African Americans as white citizens in US
Gun deaths are twice as high among African Americans as they are among white citizens in the US, finds a study of national data, published in the online journal BMJ Open. But the national figures, which have remained relatively steady over the past decade, mask wide variation in firearms deaths by ethnicity and state, the […]