Latest Science and Society News

Extreme weight more common in developing world

Obese and overweight people are gaining weight rapidly in low-and middle-income countries while those who are severely undernourished are not experiencing similar weight gains, says a study by the University of Toronto and the Harvard School of Public Health.

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Exposure to Conflict-of-Interest Policies During Residency Reduces Rate of Brand Antidepressant Prescriptions, Penn Study Finds

Psychiatrists who are exposed to conflict-of-interest (COI) policies during their residency are less likely to prescribe brand-name antidepressants after graduation than those who trained in residency programs without such policies, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Mindfulness meditation may relieve chronic inflammation

People suffering from chronic inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and asthma - in which psychological stress plays a major role - may benefit from mindfulness meditation techniques, according to a study by University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientists with the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center. 

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In sports, the story - not the victor - makes the difference in enjoyment

A new study has concluded that sports fans love to root for a hero and against a villain, but if the game is exciting, they’ll enjoy it no matter who wins.

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Facebook posts – not easily forgotten

Facebook posts resonate significantly more with human nature than books or even human faces, according to a new study by Laura Mickes and colleagues from the University of California San Diego in the US. The difference in memory between these microblogs and actual published words from a page is as striking as the difference in memory between amnesiacs and healthy controls. The work is published online in Springer's journal Memory & Cognition.

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Physical Rehabilitation in the Intensive Care Unit is Better For Patients and the Hospital’s Bottom Line

In a study evaluating the financial impact of providing early physical therapy for intensive care patients, researchers at Johns Hopkins found that the up-front costs are outweighed by the financial savings generated by earlier discharges from the intensive care unit and shorter hospital stays overall. An article describing the findings, "ICU Early Physical Rehabilitation Programs: Financial Modeling of Cost Savings," is published online ahead of print in the March issue of Critical Care Medicine.

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