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1 week ago | 
medicalrepublic.com.au | Laura Andronicos |Ruby Prosser Scully
And antidepressant withdrawal may be harder after longer use, while depression and loneliness predicts future pain. GLP1-RA drugs don’t seem to trigger adverse psychiatric events and instead appear to improve both physical and emotional wellbeing, a UK systematic review and meta-analysis found.
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1 month ago | 
medicalrepublic.com.au | Laura Andronicos |Lincoln Tracy
With ever-increasing wait times for teenagers to access mental health treatment, could AI chatbots be the answer? Young people want someone to talk to while waiting for mental health treatment. AI chatbots could keep them from turning to unhealthy coping behaviours in the meantime, new research suggests.
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Sep 5, 2024 | 
medicalrepublic.com.au | Laura Andronicos
Managing inflammatory biomarkers with food may contribute to staving off dementia for up to two years and reduce the risk of developing it at all. Older adults with cardiometabolic disease have 31% lower risk of dementia if they adhere to an anti-inflammatory diet, new research from the UK Biobank suggests. An anti-inflammatory diet was also associated with an average of two years later onset than for those with a proinflammatory diet.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
medicalrepublic.com.au | Laura Andronicos
Recombinant vaccine may increase time to diagnosis compared to the live vaccine, but any protection from infection has benefit. Electronic health records in the US show an average 17% more time living without dementia for those who were given the recombinant shingles vaccine instead of the live shingles vaccine. A second study shows a 20% increase in risk for cognitive decline in people with a history of shingles, suggesting that successfully avoiding infection is what brings the benefit.
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Aug 22, 2024 | 
oncologyrepublic.com.au | Laura Andronicos
Fierce spud activists finally have proof of what we’ve been saying all these years: potato good. This Back Page correspondent has always been an advocate for the humble potato. Not for any medical reasons, but because I was raised by a couple of wartime pommies and potato was one of only three vegetables that I’ve ever seen them eat. You have to admire the versatility and shelf-life of this under-rated staple.
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
medicalrepublic.com.au | Laura Andronicos
Fierce spud activists finally have proof of what we’ve been saying all these years: potato good. This Back Page correspondent has always been an advocate for the humble potato. Not for any medical reasons, but because I was raised by a couple of wartime pommies and potato was one of only three vegetables that I’ve ever seen them eat. You have to admire the versatility and shelf-life of this under-rated staple.
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Aug 12, 2024 | 
medicalrepublic.com.au | Laura Andronicos
Routine blood tests may be a useful part of screening. Meanwhile the much hyped Galleri test is being called into question. Flagging abnormal routine blood test results for patients with gut complaints could help find undiagnosed cancer, researchers say. They estimate that an extra 16% of people with undiagnosed cancer would have been given urgent specialist referral if this were usual practice, compared to risk assessment based on symptoms, age and sex alone.
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Aug 12, 2024 | 
medicalrepublic.com.au | Laura Andronicos
CYP2D6-dependent opioids should not be prescribed to patients on these common antidepressants. Taking codeine, oxycodone or tramadol with some common antidepressants leads to worsening pain in older people, a new US study has concluded. The study was conducted on over 30,000 nursing home residents aged 65-85 taking a combination of antidepressants and opioid painkillers. Over three quarters were female, and 82% were taking CYP2D6 neutral antidepressants.
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
medicalrepublic.com.au | Laura Andronicos
And those with anxiety who also experience other common symptoms are at an even greater risk. Anxiety and Parkinson’s disease are known to go hand in hand, but a new diagnosis of anxiety after the age of 50 may be an indicator of the oncoming development of Parkinson’s, according to a new study from University College London.
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Aug 1, 2024 | 
medicalrepublic.com.au | Laura Andronicos
The pathology college is urgently calling for increased vigilance in response to recent surges in syphilis, gonorrhoea and HIV. Sexually transmitted infections are an increasing public health concern in Australia and require immediate attention to stop the spread, says the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. Data from 2022-2023 show a nearly 20% increase in gonorrhoea notifications alone, and further increases are expected this year.
