Expecting parents who have one child or other family members with an autism spectrum disorder often request genetic testing to determine their unborn child’s risk for autism. Currently, however, the most frequently used genetic tests—karyotyping, which examines a sample of cells for abnormalities and testing for Fragile X syndrome, a condition that can cause developmental [...]
Why is it that most of us can remember our precise surroundings the moment that we first learned of JFK’s assassination, the Challenger explosion or the fall of the Twin Towers, but not say, what grocery aisle we were standing in when the phone call came to remind us to pick up milk? What is [...]
An overactive dopamine reward system in the brain may help explain why psychopaths pursue rewards without regard for consequences, according to new research published this week in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Previous research has found that individuals who suffer from antisocial personality disorder—often referred to as sociopathology or psychopathology, despite debate over whether these are [...]
Alcoholic beverages that have been pumped full of oxygen may take less time to process in the body—meaning that drinkers sober up faster, according to a new study published this month in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. A team of researchers from Chungnam National University in South Korea began with the understanding that [...]
Transferring the care of a patient from one physician to another is a standard—and necessary—part of hospital care. Yet, among trainee doctors, important information often gets overlooked during these hand-offs, according to a new study published in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics. Researchers at the University of Chicago studied hand-off communication among first-year [...]
Women who have taken the pill may live longer because they face less risk of heart disease and cancer, according to new study led by Dr. Philip Hannaford from Scotland’s University of Aberdeen. The study, published this week in the British Medical Journal, followed more than 46,000 female patients from 1,400 medical practices throughout the [...]
People who are stressed are more likely to grind their teeth in their sleep—clenching, and working their jaws throughout the night, slowly wearing teeth smooth or even chipping them, and awakening with headaches and muscle tension. Yet, according to new research published last week in the journal, it’s not solely feeling stressed, but rather how [...]
Slate.com reported on a horrifying story yesterday about parents who, after giving birth to a child with some health complications, whiled away their time raising a cyber baby and left their real-world infant to starve. The South Korean parents met online, and soon developed a romantic relationship that resulted in the birth of a premature [...]
A recent study examining the potential impact of sin taxes—increasing the cost of junk food, in particular—as a means to promote healthier choices found that, in a lab setting at least, when unhealthy foods cost more, people tended to eat them less. Now, new research attempts to size up the value of sin taxes in [...]
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is preparing a safety warning about baby slings, which can potentially pose a suffocation risk for infants, according to the Associated Press. The warning comes as a result of the fact that several infants have died in the fabric carriers, likely due to the fact that they fell into a [...]
