A Lower Dose May Do as Good a Job; Slower Is Better at the Drugstore; Add This Headache to Your Migraines
The latest news on depression and diabetes adds credence to the notion of a link between the mind's health and the body's. In a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers found that older adults with strong symptoms of depression were about 60 percent more likely to develop diabetes than happier peers. The association held up when risk factors for diabetes-smoking, excess weight, and lack of exercise-were taken into account. One theory: Depression leads to an elevation in the stress hormone cortisol, which increases blood glucose levels. The finding, along with evidence from about a dozen other studies, suggests that depression is an independent risk factor for diabetes, says Richard Rubin, president of the American Diabetes Association and an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University. Bottom line: Seniors might want to be sure their annual physical includes a depression screening. - Deborah Kotz
A Lower Dose May Do as Good a Job
People who have had a heart attack usually take a high dose of a cholesterol-lowering statin drug to prevent a second attack or a stroke. Now it looks as if many may be able to scale back and save money. A study in the May Circulation found that among stable patients whose heart attack happened months or years previously, the death rate over two years was about the same whether they got the highest dose of powerful Lipitor or a moderate dose of less potent (and cheaper) Zocor. "We did see slightly lower rates of heart attacks and strokes" in the high-dose patients, says author Paul Chan, a cardiovascular fellow at the University of Michigan Medical School. But problems associated with a high statin dose may discourage people from staying on the drug. By contrast, acute heart-attack patients on high-dose Lipitor did experience a 25 percent lower mortality rate over the next two years. - D.K.
Slower Is Better at the Drugstore
How hurried is your pharmacist? You may want to pay attention. Researchers at the University of Arizona have discovered that the busier a pharmacist gets, the more likely a customer is to walk away with medications that could interact in a harmful way. Pharmacists studied-from 672 locations in 18 cities-filled about 14 prescriptions in a typical hour. With each additional one beyond that number, the risk of dispensing a potentially harmful drug went up by 3 percent. At some pharmacies, almost 10 percent of prescriptions filled were potentially problematic. Most pharmacies' computer systems flash an alert if a customer orders a drug that could result in an interaction. But the prompt may be overlooked when lines are long. So it's smart to ask questions. Even grapefruit and acetaminophen can affect how some drugs work. - Sarah Baldauf
Add This Headache to Your Migraines
A new study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that men who suffered from migraines had a 42 percent higher risk of a heart attack than other men. The findings parallel those of a study of women last summer. The reasons are unclear, says epidemiologist Tobias Kurth, the study's lead author. Some experts caution that more work is needed before conclusions can be drawn. In women, only migraines accompanied by the sensations known as an aura were strongly linked to cardiovascular disease. For the men, information on whether migraines were accompanied by an aura was unavailable, so it's not clear whether aura-free migraines mean added risk. A further puzzle: The association lessens as people age and eventually disappears. In any case, says Kurth, the other risk factors for heart disease "are overwhelming in comparison to migraines." - Adam Voiland
This story appears in the May 7, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.