Medicine & Health

Abnormal heart rate variability increases the risk of death for depressed heart patients.Scientists have known for years that depression increases the risk of dying in the months after a heart attack, but they haven’t understood how depression raises that risk. Now, behavioral medicine specialists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are reporting in the Archives of Internal Medicine that abnormal heart rate variability is partially responsible for depression’s effects in heart patients.

Deanna Barch (right), co-author of a memory study that used a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine (shown in the background) to monitor the brain activity of people with schizophrenia.When encouraged to use memorization strategies commonly employed by healthy individuals, people with schizophrenia can be helped to remember information just as well as their healthy counterparts, a process that in itself seems to spur a normalization of memory-related activities in the brains of people with schizophrenia, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

MaconesGeorge A. Macones, M.D., M.S.C.E., has been named head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Elaine and Mitchell Yanow Professor at the School of Medicine. Macones will replace James R. Schreiber, M.D., who has served as head of obstetrics and gynecology since 1991.

“Let’s talk about condoms.” Whether or not that conversational topic is introduced in a budding romantic relationship may depend on what type of condom-promotion messages the partners have heard. The way messages promoting condom-use are framed influences the effectiveness of the messages, according to a recent study co-authored by Dee Lisa Cothran, Ph.D., who conducted extensive research on the topic as a psychology doctoral student in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

LindemanTwo students at the School of Medicine have been elected to prominent offices on the Assembly of Student Delegates Steering Committee of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). Kristen Lindeman was elected chairperson, and Tim Wolf was elected vice chairperson at the annual AOTA convention.

AllenPaul M. Allen, Ph.D., the Robert L. Kroc Professor of Pathology and Immunology at the School of Medicine, today became president of the 6,500-member American Association of Immunologists (AAI). Allen is a cellular immunologist who specializes in the study of how T lymphocytes recognize antigen and initiate an immune response.

Nerves talk to each other using chemicals called neurotransmitters. One of those “communication chemicals,” aptly named GABA (gamma amino butyric acid), shows up in unusually high amounts in some aggressive tumors, according to a new study from the School of Medicine in St. Louis.

While the effects of autism are well documented, the underlying causes remain a mystery to scientists. A group of researchers at the School of Medicine are conducting a study to gain a better understanding of the genetic influences on the the disorder. Read more from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

If you are a healthy male who is 65 years of age or older, you may be eligible for a study at the School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study is examining the benefits of restoring testosterone and growth hormone to youthful levels to determine if the therapy can improve muscle mass and strength, body fat, physical function and quality of life.

PomegranateExpectant mothers at risk of premature birth may want to consider drinking pomegranate juice to help their babies resist brain injuries from low oxygen and reduced blood flow, a new mouse study from the School of Medicine suggests.