Blood biomarker identified for episodic migraines

A biomarker in the blood has been identified that indicates episodic migraines.- JR

A team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore claims to have identified a biomarker present in the blood for episodic migraine. According to the researchers, the study findings could potentially have significant implications in diagnosis and treatment of episodic migraine.

A person suffers from episodic migraine when he or she experiences less than 15 headaches in a month. The author of the study, published in the journal Neurology, B. Lee Peterlin, says that “while more research is required to confirm the initial findings, the possibility of discovering a new biomarker for migraine is exciting.”

During the study, the researchers analyzed the neurological exam, blood samples and body mass index of a group of 52 women with episodic migraine and 36 women with no history of migraine headaches. The first group of the women had an average of 5.6 headache days in a month.

In the blood samples, the researchers looked for a group of lipids called ceramides, which plays a role in homeostasis and also helps regulate brain inflammation. The researchers found that in women with episodic migraine, the level of ceramides decreased.

Women suffering from migraine had 6,000 nanograms per milliliter of ceramides in their blood as compared to the women with no headache, who had 10,500 nanograms per milliliter of ceramide. Therefore, the researchers associated the standard deviation increase in levels of ceramide with a 92 percent less risk of developing migraine.

In another small random study, the researchers studied the levels of ceramide in a group of 14 subjects. Based on the levels of the ceramide, the team was able to correctly identify whether the participant had episodic migraine or not.

"This study is a very important contribution to our understanding of the underpinnings of migraine and may have wide-ranging effects in diagnosing and treating migraine if the results are replicated in further studies," said Karl Ekbom of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Ekbom further said that some of the shortfalls of the study include non-inclusion of males and exclusion of chronic migraine.

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Concussions affect men and women differently

According to a study, concussions affect men and women differently.

New research suggests concussion may not significantly impair symptoms or cognitive skills for one gender over another, however, women may still experience greater symptoms and poorer cognitive performance at preseason testing. The study released today will be presented at the Sports Concussion Conference in Denver, July 24 to 26, hosted by the American Academy of Neurology, the world's leading authority on diagnosing and managing sports concussion. The conference will feature the latest scientific advances in diagnosing and treating sports concussion from leading experts in the field.

The study involved 148 college athletes from 11 sports at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. All had taken tests of learning and processing along with other measures of the brain's abilities, such as attention and working memory speed. Of the participants, 45 percent were female, 51 percent played a contact sport and 24 percent had experienced a concussion.

They had an average of 0.3 concussions, ranging from zero to four. Men and women were equally likely to have a history of concussion, even after researchers adjusted for the percentage who played contact sports.

Women who have had a history of at least one concussion do not score lower on computerized cognitive baseline testing. However, all women, regardless of concussion history, had greater symptoms, symptom severity and poorer cognitive performance than men at baseline. Women reported on average 1.5 more symptoms and scored three points higher on symptom severity than men. On a clinical reaction time task, women were 19 milliseconds slower to react than men. On cognitive tasks assessing processing speed, attention and working memory speed women scored on average seven percent below men with the greatest difference on processing speed (8.5 percent).

"More research is needed to confirm these results and to understand why women may have lower performance at preseason baseline. The difference in performance between genders should be of great interest to athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, and doctors who utilize baseline assessments to aide recovery protocols," said study author Kathryn L. O'Connor of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

"This finding that cognitive skills were not significantly affected by having a concussion for either gender should be reassuring to athletes who have experienced a concussion and wonder about its later effects," O'Connor said.

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More than 13% of boys in America have ADHD

This article claims that over 13% of American boys have ADHD.

A total of 9.5% of children aged 4-17 in the US have at some point been diagnosed with ADHD, according to statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control. While prevalence statistics often rely on the administration of mental health screening tests, the latest statistics reflect actual diagnoses given to the children by physicians or mental health care providers. The CDC also identified significant trends based on gender and income levels.

The latest statistics came from the National Health Interview Survey of the National Center for Health Statistics. Between 2011-13, information was collected for 29,968 children aged 4–17. Respondents were asked, “Has a doctor or health professional ever told you that [sample child] had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or attention deficit disorder (ADD)?”

There were differences based on age, gender and income.

"For those aged 4–5, prevalence was 2.7%, 9.5% for those aged 6–11, and 11.8% for those aged 12–17," stated a CDC data brief. "13.3% of boys and 5.6% of girls aged 4–17 had ever been diagnosed with ADHD."

The ADHD rates were highest among children with public insurance at 11.7%, and lowest among uninsured children at 5.7%. Among children with private insurance, the rate was 8.6%.

Of families with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty threshold, 10.4% of children had been diagnosed with ADHD, compared with 8.8% of children in families with incomes at or above 200% of the poverty threshold.

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Study: Link between depression and sleep disorders in men

A study found a link between depression and sleep disorders in men.

Sleep problems are often caused by various mental illnesses, such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, but a new research shows interchangeability between sleep disorders and depression. Apparently, having trouble sleeping can also be a trigger.

Researchers from the University of Adelaide and the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health examined levels of sleepiness throughout the day in almost 2,000 Australian men aged between 35 and 83.

It turned out that those exhibiting severe daytime sleepiness had 10 percent more chances of becoming depressed than those who felt rested during waking hours. Even after various risk factors were taken into account, the link between the two held up.

At the beginning of the assessment, none of the men entering the study were diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea, but after joining, 856 of them were examined in the light of symptoms related to the condition.

Those receiving this diagnose turned out to be 2.1 times more prone to become depressed than participants who didn’t have the sleep condition.

According to the results, men who struggled with both extreme daytime sleepiness and severe sleep apnea had even more increased chances of depression – 4.2 times more than men with no sleep disorders. Suffering from both conditions also meant 3.5 times more chances of depression when compared with men with only one of them.

Two follow-up tests were involved in the evaluation of depression levels, taken at a five years difference from one another. This period allowed researchers to observe whether it is possible that sleep disorders are linked to a recent diagnosis of depression.

During those five years, men suffering from severe sleep apnea diagnosed during the study turned out to have 2.9 times increased risk of becoming depressed.

However, the study’s design could not help researchers determine whether sleep problems can be considered boosters of depression risk in men. They believe it is possible that depression is a cause of sleep disorders, but the reverse was more difficult to assess.

The team also considered the possibility that a third factor included in the equation could cause both depression and sleep troubles.

Authors of the study are still unsure about the exact relation between a sound sleep and risk of depression, but the results offer enough information doctors can use in their practices. For example, after a patient receives a depression diagnosis, physicians should order a screening for obstructive sleep apnea, even if the patient doesn’t show signs of sleepiness.

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Study: Girls diagnosed with autism later than boys are

A study shows that girls are diagnosed with autism later than boys are.

Current statistics on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show that boys are nearly five times more likely than girls to have autism. Now a new study proves that in addition to being diagnosed less, girls are also diagnosed at a later age than boys.

The study, conducted by the Kennedy Krieger Institute in in Baltimore, Maryland, analyzed data from the Institute’s Interactive Autism Network (IAN), an online information registry of nearly 50,000 people affected by autism and their families.  Researchers took into account the age that both boys and girls were diagnosed with autism for 9,932 children, and Social Responsiveness Scale data from 5,103 children, which identifies the presence and severity of social impairment.

Results showed that girls with a type of autism called pervasive developmental disorder (PDD)— which is characterized by delays in the development of socialization and communication skills— were diagnosed at an average age of 4 years old, compared to 3.8 years old in boys. In addition to PPD diagnosis, researchers found that Asperger’s syndrome diagnoses also happened later for girls – at 7.6 years old compared to 7.1 years of age for boys.

“The later diagnosis of girls appears to be tied to their areas of delay being less apparent, showing up more as shyness and quietness rather than the more unusual behaviors seen in boys, ” Dr. Paul Lipkin, study author and director of the Interactive Autism Network at Kennedy Krieger told FoxNews.com.

Lipkin said findings suggest that when it comes to social cognition, or the ability to interpret social cues, girls struggle more than boys, while boys have more difficulty with more obvious symptoms like severe mannerisms and repetitive behaviors.

“At the present time, autism screeners are not designed to look at boys and girls differently. This and other studies suggest that such may be needed, particularly around social skill development,” Lipkin said. “So parents, pediatric clinicians, therapists, educators now should give careful consideration to girls who are having difficulties in social situations and assist these girls early.”

Researchers noted an increase in the number of girls diagnosed with autism from 2010-2013 compared to the statistic measured four years earlier. Lipkin said he thinks the reason for the rise might be better public awareness and screening methods.

“We need to look at large groups of girls with autism and better understand their developmental pathways, in order to find the best means for their early identification and to find the best treatments for the challenges they experience,” he said. “One can no longer assume that boys and girls with autism are alike.”

Lipkin said he hopes the findings help change the way autism is diagnosed, and that further research will determine whether less recognizable symptoms in girls are not only leading to later diagnosis, but also under-identification of the condition.

“We need to find the best ways to identify those at both ends of the spectrum, those with severe problems and those with milder problems in social development,” he said. “The quiet girl with social difficulties may have an ASD and may benefit from special treatments aimed at these delays in social development.”

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Study: No link between migraines and breast cancer risk

A study found no association between migraine headaches and breast cancer risk in women.

A large, new study should reassure the millions of American women who have migraine: The debilitating headaches don't raise the risk for breast cancer.

"There is no association between migraine and breast cancer risk," said lead researcher Rulla Tamimi, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "There is no positive association, so there is no reason for concern, and there is no protective effect either."

About 18 percent of American women and 6 percent of men suffer from migraine, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. Migraine is a syndrome involving severe headaches that are often accompanied by visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to sound and light. Attacks can last from four to 72 hours.

The idea that migraine and breast cancer might be connected arose because both involve sex hormone levels, Tamimi explained.

"We don't really understand the cause of migraines, but there has been a suggestion that they may be triggered by hormone levels," she said. "We know that hormone levels are also associated with breast cancer, so perhaps there could be a link between migraine and breast cancer."

But the report -- based on more than 100,000 women -- observed no association between migraine and breast cancer or migraine and female sex hormones, Tamimi said. The findings were published Dec. 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The research data, which included analysis of four other studies, hinted that migraine might even lower the risk for breast cancer, but that appeared to be a result of study design and not necessarily a real link, the researchers said.

Dr. Mark Green, a professor of neurology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, said that the idea that migraines might be protective against breast cancer is intriguing.

"There is a suggestion that migraine is linked to a lower incidence of breast cancer. However, the numbers were small, and it's not appropriate to suggest that yet, but it's an interesting idea," said Green, who was not involved with the study.

Dr. Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, discussed the study's significance: "In the ongoing quest to find out what contributes to the causes of cancer, sometimes a negative association can also shed light on the subject," she said. "This study will give relief to many migraine sufferers, and give them one less thing to worry about."

The study relied on data on over 115,000 women who took part in the Nurses' Health Study II, about 18,000 of whom suffered from migraine. Over 20 years of follow-up, no association with breast cancer was observed.

Tamimi's team also looked at the levels of sex hormones of about 2,000 premenopausal women and found no link between hormone levels and migraines.

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Differences in sleep issues between women and men

This article explains the differences in sleep issues faced by women and men.

As a nation we are severely sleep-deprived. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as much as a third of all Americans do not get the recommended seven hours of sleep a night.

"One of the myths is that we can power through or sleep when we're dead," Dr. Charles Czeisler, chair of the National Sleep Foundation and director of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School, told "CBS This Morning." "But of coursewe'll get there faster if we don't get enough sleep. "

Women and men run into different roadblocks when it comes to their quest for a good night's sleep.

Women are more likely to toss and turn frequently and fight bouts of insomnia, a result of differences in hormonal regulation. Estrogen tends to shorten the length of the sleep cycle, which is why women often report that they experience sleep troubles around the time of menstruation, pregnancy or menopause.

According to a poll taken by the National Sleep Foundation, 63 percent of women versus 54 percent of men experience insomnia at least few nights a week. Women are also more likely to experience daytime sleepiness.

"One of the things is the internal clock controls the timing of sleep," said Czeisler. "It runs faster in women than it does men. It's only about a tenth of an hour but it adds up so that women, in general, their internal clocks are set to about an hour or an hour and half earlier than men, and that means it wakes them up earlier in the morning and it's harder to stay awake in the evening."

On the other hand, anatomical differences in men mean they're more likely to have sleep apnea -- a result of more fat deposit around the neck. Approximately 17 percent of men and 9 percent of women are diagnosed with sleep apnea, a type of sleep disorder that is caused by infrequent or paused breathing.

"If you crowd out the airway then you're going to have trouble when you sleep," said Czeisler. "One out of 3 men and about 1 out of 6 women suffer from disturbed sleep disordered breathing. But unfortunately, because it tends to be viewed as a male dominated disease women are much less likely to be diagnosed. Only 1 out of 10 women compared with men get diagnosed for sleep apnea."

Regardless of these challenges, everyone can take a number of measures to avoid sleep deprivation. Czeisler says good sleep hygiene is essential, such as going to bed at the same time each night to regulate your circadian rhythm. Some people find it helpful to set an alarm for bedtime. Creating a bedroom that's conducive to sleeping is also essential: remove all electronics from the bedroom and keep your room cool and dark.

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Study: Self-reported sleep issues increase Alzheimer's riskhttp://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/01/article-2108664-11FCB218000005DC-905_468x338.jpg

According to a study, older males self-reporting sleep issues increases his risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

In a new study, researchers from Uppsala University demonstrate that elderly men with self-reported sleep disturbances run a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease than men without self-reported sleep disturbances. The results are published in the scientific journal Alzheimer's & Dementia.

The researchers followed more than 1,000 men, who were initially 50 year old, between the years 1970 and 2010. The results of the study show that self-reported sleep disturbances were linked to an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease during the 40-year follow-up period, particularly if they occurred late in life. The data suggest that a regular good night's sleep could support brain health in men.

'We demonstrate that men with self-reported sleep disturbances run a 1.5-fold higher risk to develop Alzheimer's disease than those without reports of sleep disturbances during a 40-year follow-up period. The later the self-reported sleep disturbance was found the higher the risk was for developing Alzheimer's disease. These findings suggest that strategies aimed at improving sleep quality in late life may help reduce the risk to develop Alzheimer's disease', says Christian Benedict, sleep researcher at Uppsala University, who led the study.

"Importantly, there are several lifestyle factors, such as exercise, that can influence your brain's health. Thus, it must be borne in mind that a multifaceted lifestyle approach comprising good sleep habits is essential for maintaining brain health as you age," says Christian Benedict.

In an earlier article published in the journal Sleep, Christian Benedict and colleagues showed that a single night of total sleep deprivation increased blood concentrations of brain molecules in young men that typically rise in blood upon acute brain damage.

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Women, in addition to men, suffer from sleep apnea

This article explains that not only men are affected by sleep apnea.

Decades ago, heart disease was thought of as a "man's disease" before well-targeted public education campaigns increased cardiac illness recognition among women and its profound impact on their health. Similarly, one of the most common sleep disorders, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), has received a masculine label.

Granted, OSA affects half as many women as men, but it is far from rare -- about 6 percent of women suffer from this condition [1]. The lack of awareness in the medical community about the impact of OSA on women is partly rooted in gender bias and partly due to sex differences of the symptoms.

OSA is characterized by repeated episodes of the throat closing or narrowing enough to restrict airflow, which results in fluctuations in the amount of oxygen in the blood. This leads to numerous brief disruptions of sleep as well as poor sleep quality.

Untreated OSA is a risk factor for high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, and is associated with overall decreased quality of life and wellbeing. The "textbook" symptoms primarily include loud snoring, episodes of gasping for air often witnessed by bed partners, excessive daytime sleepiness, and waking up unrefreshed.

Between 1979 and 1988, many reports on the overwhelming predominance of men among OSA sufferers were published in prestigious journals [2, 3, 4]. This led to health care providers primarily screening male patients for OSA symptoms thereby under-recognizing and thus under-diagnosing OSA in women.

On standardized questionnaires, women with OSA tend to be as sleepy as men, but are more likely to complain of insomnia, depression and fatigue rather than the textbook symptoms of the disorder [5]. Women more often lack a bed partner's account of observed snoring and pauses in breathing and more of them come to the clinic without a spouse or a life partner who can serve as a witness [6].

Another difference among men and women is the change in the OSA risk throughout the lifespan. While a man's risk increases linearly as he ages, a woman's risk is relatively low until menopause and then sharply increases to reach that of similarly aged men [7].

Two exceptions are pregnant women, especially those who are obese before conception, and women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is a reproductive hormonal disorder characterized by higher than normal testosterone levels and problems with fertility [8]. Among pregnant women, untreated OSA increases the risk of gestational diabetes and pregnancy-induced hypertension [9].

It is essential to educate both health care providers and the population at large on both the prevalence of OSA in women and its unique clinical presentation in order to recognize and appropriately treat women with OSA. Early diagnosis and treatment can help prevent the complications mentioned above, improve overall wellbeing, and indirectly reduce the costs of managing multiple, preventable chronic illnesses.

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Young males' brains and risky behaviors

A study gains insight into brain mechanisms that explain why young males engage in more risky behaviors.

It's common knowledge that teenage boys seem predisposed to risky behaviors. Now, a series of new studies is shedding light on specific brain mechanisms that help to explain what might be going on inside juvenile male brains.

Florida State University College of Medicine Neuroscientist Pradeep Bhide brought together some of the world's foremost researchers in a quest to explain why teenagers -- boys, in particular -- often behave erratically.

The result is a series of 19 studies that approached the question from multiple scientific domains, including psychology, neurochemistry, brain imaging, clinical neuroscience and neurobiology. The studies are published in a special volume of Developmental Neuroscience, "Teenage Brains: Think Different?"

"Psychologists, psychiatrists, educators, neuroscientists, criminal justice professionals and parents are engaged in a daily struggle to understand and solve the enigma of teenage risky behaviors," Bhide said. "Such behaviors impact not only the teenagers who obviously put themselves at serious and lasting risk but also families and societies in general.

"The emotional and economic burdens of such behaviors are quite huge. The research described in this book offers clues to what may cause such maladaptive behaviors and how one may be able to devise methods of countering, avoiding or modifying these behaviors."

An example of findings published in the book that provide new insights about the inner workings of a teenage boy's brain:

• Unlike children or adults, teenage boys show enhanced activity in the part of the brain that controls emotions when confronted with a threat. Magnetic resonance scanner readings in one study revealed that the level of activity in the limbic brain of adolescent males reacting to threat, even when they've been told not to respond to it, was strikingly different from that in adult men.

• Using brain activity measurements, another team of researchers found that teenage boys were mostly immune to the threat of punishment but hypersensitive to the possibility of large gains from gambling. The results question the effectiveness of punishment as a deterrent for risky or deviant behavior in adolescent boys.

• Another study demonstrated that a molecule known to be vital in developing fear of dangerous situations is less active in adolescent male brains. These findings point towards neurochemical differences between teenage and adult brains, which may underlie the complex behaviors exhibited by teenagers.

"The new studies illustrate the neurobiological basis of some of the more unusual but well-known behaviors exhibited by our teenagers," Bhide said. "Stress, hormonal changes, complexities of psycho-social environment and peer-pressure all contribute to the challenges of assimilation faced by teenagers.

"These studies attempt to isolate, examine and understand some of these potential causes of a teenager's complex conundrum. The research sheds light on how we may be able to better interact with teenagers at home or outside the home, how to design educational strategies and how best to treat or modify a teenager's maladaptive behavior."

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Adulthood with ADHD Podcast

At the link below, view a podcast about the transition from childhood to adulthood for a person with ADHD.

ADD and ADHD don’t just affect children. More and more adults are being diagnosed with the condition, especially young women. According to a recent report, between 2008 and 2012, the number of women taking ADHD drugs jumped 85 percent. This hour we’ll talk about the disorder, how adults are affected and how they live with it.

Listen to the podcast here

Why are brain tumors more common in men?

Research aims to explain why men get brain tumors that are more frequent and often more harmful than women.

New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis helps explain why brain tumors occur more often in males and frequently are more harmful than similar tumors in females. For example, glioblastomas, the most common malignant brain tumors, are diagnosed twice as often in males, who suffer greater cognitive impairments than females and do not survive as long.

The researchers found that retinoblastoma protein (RB), a protein known to reduce cancer risk, is significantly less active in male brain cells than in female brain cells.

The study appears Aug. 1 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"This is the first time anyone ever has identified a sex-linked difference that affects tumor risk and is intrinsic to cells, and that's very exciting," said senior author Joshua Rubin, MD, PhD. "These results suggest we need to go back and look at multiple pathways linked to cancer, checking for sex differences. Sex-based distinctions at the level of the cell may not only influence cancer risk but also the effectiveness of treatments."

Rubin noted that RB is the target of drugs now being evaluated in clinical trials. Trial organizers hope the drugs trigger the protein's anti-tumor effects and help cancer patients survive longer.

"In clinical trials, we typically examine data from male and female patients together, and that could be masking positive or negative responses that are limited to one sex," said Rubin, who is an associate professor of pediatrics, neurology and anatomy and neurobiology. "At the very least, we should think about analyzing data for males and females separately in clinical trials."

Scientists have identified many sex-linked diseases that either occur at different rates in males and females or cause different symptoms based on sex. These distinctions often are linked to sex hormones, which create and maintain many but not all of the biological differences between the sexes.

However, Rubin and his colleagues knew that sex hormones could not account for the differences in brain tumor risk.

"Male brain tumor risk remains higher throughout life despite major age-linked shifts in sex hormone production in males and females," he said. "If the sex hormones were causing this effect, we'd see major changes in the relative rates of brain tumors in males and females at puberty. But they don't happen then or later in life when menopause changes female sex hormone production."

Rubin used a cell model of glioblastoma to prove it is easier to make male brain cells become tumors. After a series of genetic alterations and exposure to a growth factor, male brain cells became cancerous faster and more often than female brain cells.

In experiments designed to identify the reasons for the differences in the male and female cells, the team evaluated three genes to see if they were naturally less active in male brain cells. The genes they studied -- neurofibromin, p53 and RB -- normally suppress cell division and cell survival. They are mutated and disabled in many cancers.

The scientists found RB was more likely to be inactivated in male brain cells than in female brain cells. When they disabled the RB protein in female brain cells, the cells were equally susceptible to becoming cancers.

"There are other types of tumors that occur at different rates based on sex, such as some liver cancers, which occur more often in males," Rubin said. "Knowing more about why cancer rates differ between males and females will help us understand basic mechanisms in cancer, seek more effective therapies and perform more informative clinical trials."

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More boys are diagnosed with ADD and ADHD

This article discusses an apparent gender bias which causes more boys than girls to be diagnosed with ADD and ADHD.

There's a gender bias when it comes to diagnosing Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

That's according to the woman who runs the largest ADHD coaching program in North America.

Shanna Pearson, the founder and president of One Focus Total Success Inc., told CFRA it's because the symptoms present more clearly in men.

"It's more noticeable in men, so a lot more of them are actually going to seek a diagnosis or it's just being pointed out to them," she said. "With women a lot of them, it's just going under the wire. They're not being noticed. They're not picking up on it."

Research shows two out of every three women with ADD or ADHD are misdiagnosed by doctors as having depression.

"And it's almost understandable how they would, because a lot of ADHD symptoms, especially for women because it's more on the emotional spectrum, a lot of ADHD symptoms can look like depression," she said.

She said women need to be aware about what is going on for them.

"It's not necessarily that they're just overly emotional or very scattered or absent-minded or some of the other labels that people put on women who are like that," Pearson said.

"It could be that they have ADHD, so I would say that if you're a woman who has more drama in your life than most people you know, if you're somebody who gets overwhelmed very, very easily or you experience a lot of anxiety on a regular basis or you tend to get frozen in your thoughts or overwhelmed and you can't move forward - those types of symptoms, I would say you might want to get a diagnosis," she added.

Pearson said once a person is properly diagnosed by a specialist, they can learn how to better manage the symptoms that come with the disorder.

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Too much and too little sleep indicate memory problems

This article claims that both too much and too little sleep can lead to memory problems in older women.

Seniors who slept too little or too much during midlife or after are at increased risk for memory problems, as are those whose sleep habits changed over time, a new study suggests.

Researchers looked at more than 15,000 women, 70 and older, who took part in a large study of health professionals. The women were depression- and stroke-free when they underwent their initial assessment.

Participants who slept five hours or less, or nine hours or more a day -- either in midlife or later life -- had worse memory than those who slept seven hours a day. The difference in memory was equivalent to nearly two extra years of age, the researchers said.

Women whose amount of sleep changed by more than two hours a night over time had poorer memory than those who had no sleep changes, according to the study published May 1 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

"Given the importance of preserving memory into later life, it is critical to identify modifiable factors, such as sleeping habits, that may help achieve this goal," study leader Elizabeth Devore, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said in a hospital news release.

"Our findings suggest that getting an 'average' amount of sleep, seven hours per day, may help maintain memory in later life and that clinical interventions based on sleep therapy should be examined for the prevention of [mental] impairment," she added.

The study adds "to our knowledge about how sleep impacts memory. More research is needed to confirm these findings and explore possible mechanisms underlying these associations," Devore concluded.

While the study found an association between sleep time during midlife and older age and memory function in older women, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

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Girls suffer worse concussions than boys do

A study looked into how gender affects concussion and showed that girls suffer worse concussions than boys do.

Girls who suffer a concussion may have more severe symptoms that last longer compared to boys, according to new research that builds on other studies finding gender differences.

"There have been several studies suggesting there are differences between boys and girls as far as [concussion] symptom reporting and the duration of symptoms," said Dr. Shayne Fehr, a pediatric sports medicine specialist at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

In his new study, Fehr also found those differences. He tracked 549 patients, including 235 girls, who sought treatment at a pediatric concussion clinic.

Compared to the boys, the girls reported more severe symptoms and took nearly 22 more days to recover, said Fehr, also an assistant professor of pediatric orthopedics at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

He was due to present the findings this week at the annual meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, held in New Orleans. Studies presented at medical meetings are typically viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

A concussion is any brain injury that disturbs normal functioning. Concussions are typically caused by a jolt or blow to the head, often in collision sports such as hockey or football, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

In recent years, experts have advised coaches, players and parents that athletes should not return to play until they are seen by a doctor if a concussion is suspected.

In the new study, Fehr tracked patients aged 10 to 18, all treated between early 2010 and mid-2012. Each patient reported on their symptoms, how severe they were and how long it took from the time of the injury until they were symptom-free.

In addition to reporting more severe symptoms, girls took an average of 56 days to be symptom-free. In comparison, the boys took 34 days. Overall, the time to recovery was 44 days when boys and girls were pooled.

That duration of symptoms, Fehr said, is much longer than what people commonly think. "Commonly you hear that seven to 10 days [for recovery] is average," he said.

Fehr did not find age to be linked with severity of symptoms. Most of the injuries -- 76 percent -- were sports-related, with football accounting for 22 percent of the concussions.

The top five reported symptoms were headache, trouble concentrating, sensitivity to light, sensitivity to sound and dizziness. Boys and girls, in general, reported the same types of symptoms, Fehr said, but the girls reported more severity and for a longer time period.

"This confirms what has been reported before," said Dr. John Kuluz, director of traumatic brain injury and neurorehabilitation at Miami Children's Hospital, who reviewed the findings.

While he said the 44-day recovery seems lengthy, he added that it probably reflects the boys and girls studied. They all went to a concussion clinic, so their injuries may have been more severe.

What's not known, Fehr said, is why the differences exist and whether they are related to more reporting of symptoms right after the injury by girls or if girls are truly more significantly affected.

"I wouldn't treat girls any differently than boys,'' he said.

For both genders, it's important to be seen by a doctor and not return to play prematurely, which can be dangerous or even fatal, according to the AAP. Anyone with a history of concussion is at higher risk for another injury.

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Twitter helps assess migraine trends

A study looked into how migraine sufferers discuss their migraine attacks on twitter and analyzed gender of the person, day of the week, and country the person lives in to assess trends about migraines.

Someone's drilling an icicle into your temple, you're throwing up, and light and sound are unbearable.

Yes, it's another migraine attack. But now in 140 characters on Twitter, you can share your agony with other sufferers. It indicates a trend toward the cathartic sharing of physical pain, as well as emotional pain on social media.

"As technology and language evolve, so does the way we share our suffering," said principal investigator Alexandre DaSilva, assistant professor and director of the Headache and Orofacial Pain Effort at University of Michigan School of Dentistry. "It's the first known study to show the instant and broad impact of migraine attacks on modern patients' lives by decoding manually each one of their individual attack-related tweets."

DaSilva's team, including research fellows Thiago Nascimento and Marcos DosSantos, worked with 50 students and residents to categorize 21,741 tweets. They eliminated advertising, metaphor and nonrelated migraine tweets, which has not been done in previous studies. Further, they analyzed the meaning of each individual migraine tweet.

"We sought to evaluate the instant expression of actual self-reported migraine attacks in social media," DaSilva said.

Results generated unique information about who suffers from migraines and what, how, where and when they use social media to describe their pain. The findings overlapped significantly with other traditional epidemiologic migraine studies, DaSilva and colleagues said.

Among other things, they examined the most common descriptors for migraines, including profanities, tweet times and locations, and impact on productivity and mood. Only 65 percent of the migraine tweets were from actual sufferers of migraines posting in real-time. Other tweets were advertising, general discussion, retweets, etc., indicating that not everything in social media is meaningful to the patient, DaSilva said.

Among the findings: Females accounted for about 74 percent of migraine tweets; males accounted for 17 percent. The higher global peak of migraine tweets occurred Mondays at 14:00 GMT, or 10 a.m Eastern Daylight Saving Time. The U.S. accounted for 58 percent of migraine tweets, followed by Europe at 20 percent. In the U.S., migraine tweets peaked at 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays. The morning tweets peaked later on weekends. Roughly 44 percent of tweets reported that migraine attacks immediately impacted mood. The most common migraine descriptors were "worst" at nearly 15 percent and "massive" at 8 percent.

Migraines pose a huge public health problem, harming mood, productivity and overall quality of life. An estimated 12 percent of the Western world population suffer migraine attacks, and of those, 75 percent see reduced functionality and 30 percent require bed rest.

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Study: Poor sleep is linked to cognitive decline in older men

A study found that poor sleep quality in old men is liked to their cognitive decline over a few years.

A new study of older men found a link between poor sleep quality and the development of cognitive decline over three to four years.

Results show that higher levels of fragmented sleep and lower sleep efficiency were associated with a 40 to 50 percent increase in the odds of clinically significant decline in executive function, which was similar in magnitude to the effect of a five-year increase in age. In contrast, sleep duration was not related to subsequent cognitive decline.

"It was the quality of sleep that predicted future cognitive decline in this study, not the quantity," said lead author Terri Blackwell, MA, senior statistician at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute (CPMCRI) in San Francisco, Calif. "With the rate of cognitive impairment increasing and the high prevalence of sleep problems in the elderly, it is important to determine prospective associations with sleep and cognitive decline."

The study involved 2,822 community-dwelling older men at six clinical centers in the U.S. Participants had a mean age of 76 years. The study is published in the April 1 issue of the journal Sleep.

"This study provides an important reminder that healthy sleep involves both the quantity and quality of sleep," said American Academy of Sleep Medicine President Dr. M. Safwan Badr. "As one of the pillars of a healthy lifestyle, sleep is essential for optimal cognitive functioning."

The population-based, longitudinal study was conducted by a research team led by Dr. Katie Stone, senior scientist at CPMCRI in San Francisco, Calif. Institutions represented by study collaborators include the University of California, San Francisco; University of California, San Diego; Harvard Medical School; University of Minnesota; and several Veterans Affairs medical centers.

An average of five nights of objective sleep data were collected from each participant using a wrist actigraph. Cognitive function assessment included evaluation of attention and executive function using the Trails B test. According to the authors, executive function is the ability for planning or decision making, error correction or trouble shooting, and abstract thinking. Results were adjusted for potential confounding factors such as depressive symptoms, comorbidities and medication use.

The underlying mechanisms relating disturbed sleep to cognitive decline remain unknown, the authors noted. They added that additional research is needed to determine if these associations hold after a longer follow-up period.

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Increase in autism diagnosis rates since 2000

The CDC has found a steady increase in autism diagnosis rates since 2000. Reasons for this are unknown, but may be due to increased awareness.

Autism rates in children have continued their steady rise, surging 30 percent in two years, according to the latest data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While 1 in 88 children were estimated to have autism in 2008, public health officials now estimate that 1 in 68 children are on the autism spectrum.

Those statistics are based on the 2010 medical records of 8-year-olds living in 11 communities throughout the United States that are part of the CDC’s autism surveillance network. When the CDC started its surveillance of these communities back in 2000, the incidence of autism was 1 in 150 children.

CDC officials couldn’t offer specific reasons for the rise beyond increased awareness of the condition among doctors, teachers, and parents. “It may be that we’re getting better at identifying autism,” said Coleen Boyle, director of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, during a press briefing. “We do feel like some of this has to do with how children are identified, diagnosed, and served in their communities.”

Autism advocacy groups noted that the increasing prevalence underscores the need for research funding to identify the causes of autism. “To be perfectly frank, it’s an incomplete picture right now,” said Robert Ring, chief science officer at Autism Speaks, a research advocacy organization in New York City. “All the pieces of the puzzle aren’t in place.”

Certain trends have remained constant during the decade that the CDC has been collecting data. Autism remains five times more common in boys — affecting 1 in 42 compared with 1 in 189 girls — and white children are more likely to be diagnosed than black or Hispanic children, though the prevalence in those minority groups has risen at a faster rate than for whites.

About half of children with autism in 2010 had average or above-average intelligence, compared with a third in 2002.

“We now recognize that autism is a spectrum,” said Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, chief of the CDC’s developmental disabilities branch. “Our understanding has evolved to the point that we understand that there are children with higher IQs who may not have been receiving services in the past.”

The CDC provided grants to 11 states across the country — including Arizona, Arkansas, Maryland, and Wisconsin — based on their ability to survey medical and school records for pediatric autism diagnoses. Massachusetts is not one of the sites providing data to the federal government.

Autism rates varied widely among the 11 areas under CDC surveillance. In Alabama, only 1 in 175 children had autism in 2010 compared with 1 in 45 children in New Jersey.

That difference could reflect varying access to expensive autism assessments and therapies among states. New Jersey mandated in 2010 that insurance companies must cover $36,000 per year in behavioral programs and other autism therapies for any person under age 21 who is diagnosed with the disorder. Alabama didn’t pass a coverage mandate until 2012. A Massachusetts coverage law took effect in 2011, and more than 30 other states instituted such laws as well.

Some children with behavioral or intellectual disabilities other than autism may receive the diagnosis from their doctors in order to qualify them for coverage for treatments that could benefit them too, said Dr. Sarah Spence, codirector of Boston Children Hospital’s Autism Spectrum Center. “Kids may get labeled with autism disorder because that’s the best way for them to get services, but I don’t think this overdiagnosis is a huge piece of the rising incidence.”

More likely, doctors have become more attuned to early signs of autism in toddlers and preschoolers, such as failure to make eye contact, smile, or express emotional attachments to their caregivers. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that health care providers conduct autism screening tests at every well-child visit.

“Doctors are getting better at doing these screenings,” Spence said, “to the point where every once in a while, I can happily tell parents that their child’s language delay isn’t autism.”

Despite this increased awareness, the average age at which a child is diagnosed hasn’t budged much; most children aren’t diagnosed until after 4 years of age, according to the CDC, two years after signs of the disorder usually start to appear.

“Research suggests that the earlier we intervene with treatment, the greater the probability that children will realize their full potential,” Ring said.

In an effort to get children diagnosed earlier, the US Department of Health and Human Services revealed an educational campaign on Thursday to make parents, teachers, and health care providers even more aware of early autism signs. Parents are advised to look for certain expected milestones in their child’s development, such as developing a fear of strangers, responding to other people’s emotions, and looking in the mirror by age 6 to 9 months.

One problem, however, that still remains unaddressed is the lack of behavioral specialists to assess and treat the growing population of children displaying signs of autism.

“The wait lists in Boston for assessment and treatment are too long,” Spence said, “and that’s unacceptable because every month counts when it comes to starting therapy.”

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