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Complaints By The Elderly Valuable Information Or Trivialities?
What is done when the elderly lodge complaints about their services? elderly care? Why is it that staff describe complaints made by the elderly as "trivialities"? In two recent studies, Tove Persson, doctoral student at the School of Health Sciences, shows that staff, as well as social services directors in local administrations often trivialize complaints from the elderly, which in turn makes it difficult for the elderly to influence their everyday lives.
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Fresenius Endorses PEAK Campaign Efforts To Reduce Dialysis Patient Mortality
Fresenius Medical Care, which operates the nation"s leading network of dialysis clinics, today endorsed the Performance Excellence and Accountability in Kidney Care (PEAK) campaign recently launched by Kidney Care Partners (KCP) - a coalition of patient advocates, dialysis professionals, care providers and manufacturers working together to improve quality of care for individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The PEAK initiative is designed to significantly reduce the mortality rate for patients in their first year of dialysis.
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Study Provides Greater Understanding Of Lyme Disease-Causing Bacteria
Lyme disease in the U.S. is caused by the tick-borne bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi and usually begins with a skin lesion, after which the bacteria spread throughout the body to the nervous system, heart or joints. About 60 percent of untreated individuals develop arthritis, which affects the knees in particular. Lyme disease usually responds well to antibiotic therapy, but in rare cases arthritis can persist for months or years after treatment, a rare condition known as antibiotic-refractory Lyme arthritis. Joint fluid usually tests negative for B burgdorferi after treatment, indicating that joint inflammation may persist even after the bacteria has been eradicated.
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Patients With Compulsive Hair Pulling Disorder Reported Feeling Much Improved After Taking Supplement

University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have discovered that a common anti-oxidant, widely available as a health food supplement, may help stop the urges of those with trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by compulsive hair-pulling. Fifty people enrolled in a double-blind 12 week study; half were given N-Acetylcysteine, an amino acid commonly found in health food supplements. The average age of patients who enrolled was about 34, and most started pulling hair compulsively by the age of 12. Patients were given 1,200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine every day for six weeks. For the following six weeks, the dosage was increased to 2,400 mg per day. After nine weeks, those on supplement had significantly reduced hair-pulling. By the end of the 12 week study, 56 percent reported feeling much or very much improved, while only 16 percent on the placebo reported less pulling. The study is published in the July, 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. "Trichotillomania is compulsive in the sense that people can"t control it. People feel unable to stop the behavior even though they know it is causing negative consequences," said Jon Grant, M.D., J.D., a University of Minnesota associate professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. "Some people don"t even know they are doing it." Those who have trichotillomania compulsively or habitually pull their hair to the point of noticeable loss. It is most commonly associated with women, but men can also be affected, and pulling can occur anywhere on the body. Grant believes 2 to 4 percent of the general population is impacted by trichotillomania on some level. "These are people who have tried all kinds of things that have never worked," Grant said. "The reality is that if you pull hair and it is on a noticeable part of the body, people are really disabled by this. It"s not easy to go out in public if people are noticing your bald spots. Self esteem is a huge problem. This supplement may offer hope." The study is significant on another level because it"s one of the first studies of compulsive behaviors to look at lowering levels of glutamate - a chemical that triggers excitement - in the brain to curb harmful behavior rather than serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical most commonly linked to compulsive behavior. This supplement affects levels of glutamate in a specific area of the brain, making it easier for patients to put the breaks on their harmful behavior. For that reason, Grant believes glutamate modulators such as N-Acetylcysteine may be applicable to other disorders, addictions, and compulsive behaviors. The study is funded by The University of Minnesota Medical School. Nick Hanson University of Minnesota


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