NeuroStar Depression Therapy Cleared

(HealthDay News) -- The NeuroStar TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) Therapy system has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for people with major depressive disorder who haven't seen satisfactory improvement from at least one prior antidepressant medication, device maker Neuronetics said in a news release.

TMS is a non-invasive therapy that involves stimulation of nerve cells in the brain that have been linked to depression. This is done by delivering MRI-strength magnetic pulses during a 40-minute outpatient procedure, in which patients do not require anesthesia or sedation, the company said. The daily treatment typically is given for four-to-six weeks.

In clinical studies involving 164 people with major depressive disorder, significant improvement was recorded for symptoms of core depression, anxiety, and other forms of psychological distress, Neuronetics said.

The most common side effect was mild-to-moderate scalp pain or discomfort at the treatment area, which declined "markedly after the first week," the company said. Fewer than 5 percent of patients stopped treatment due to adverse effects.

Initially, the therapy will only be available at a limited number of treatment centers across the United States, Neuronetics said.

More information
To learn more about depression, visit the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

Health Tip: Can't Sleep?

(HealthDay News) -- If you have trouble falling or staying asleep, it's important to understand the reasons for your insomnia.

Here's a list of possible reasons for your sleepless nights, courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine:

• Discomfort or illness.
• Depression.
• Stress or anxiety.
• Drinking caffeine or alcohol, smoking, or taking certain medications or illicit drugs.
• An inappropriate sleep environment, including one that's too bright or too noisy.
• Related activities that affect your sleep, such as taking naps or going to bed too early.

Managing Stress Can Lower Heart Death Risk

(HealthDay News) -- Emphasizing an old adage, new medical research confirms that keeping stress levels under control can significantly reduce the risk of a heart attack or death in patients with coronary artery disease.

Although a correlation between stress and various heart ailments has been established in the past, this is the first observational study to examine the effect of anxiety or depression treatment on a heart patient's risk factors, according to lead study investigator Yinong Young-Xu of the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation in Brookline, Mass.

The research, which was to scheduled to be presented Tuesday at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in Chicago, examined 516 patients with coronary artery disease. Those who reduced or kept their anxiety level steady were as much as 60 percent less likely to have a heart attack or die compared to those who had an increase in anxiety level, the study concluded.

This ratio remained steady after adjusting for other potential cardiovascular risk factors including age, sex, education, marital status, smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, previous heart attack, body mass index, total cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate, ejection fraction and exercise treadmill test duration, the report said.

Patients were divided into three groups according to their baseline level of anxiety -- high, intermediate and low. Heart conditions in the study included irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), atherosclerosis ("hardening of the arteries"), and atherothrombosis (blood accumulation leading to clotting).

Researchers asked patients about their feelings and moods, sleep patterns, irregularity in bowel or stomach functions and other stress markers. In addition to anxiety, the questionnaire also measured depression, hostility and physical complaints.

"These findings should reinforce to cardiologists a need to attend to the whole patient by paying attention to psychological problems in addition to cardiovascular disease," Young-Xu said in a prepared statement.

He added that the lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorder is around 30 percent among people with heart disease.

"If we can lower heart patients anxiety level, we may be able to reduce their risk of heart attack and prolong their life," he added.

More information
To keep your heart and your lifestyle healthy, visit the U.S. government for heart health advice.

Music as Medicine

(HealthDay News) -- Almost everyone has used music at one time or another to relax or perhaps to get energized. But the discipline of music therapy takes the use of music much further, from battling depression to combating cancer.

"Music therapy is an evidence-based practice that can affect changes in physical, psychological, social and cognitive domains through music experiences and the relationship that develops between the client and the therapist," said Cheryl Dileo, a professor of music therapy and director of the Arts and Quality of Life Research Center at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Just turning up the radio to your favorite tune to erase a blue mood doesn't qualify as music therapy, Dileo explained. "Self-help through music is not music therapy, although many people do use music for themselves, for example for relaxation to improve their moods, or to accompany exercise."

Music therapy, on the other hand, "involves an interpersonal process through which a trained therapist uses his or her knowledge and skills to address the client's assessed needs and issues," she said. "Although many people understand intuitively how to use music for themselves, when it is used within a music-therapy process by a trained therapist, it can be a powerful means to achieving positive physical, psychological, cognitive and social outcomes."

The uses of music therapy are myriad, according to Dileo. Music therapy can be used to reduce the anxiety of hospital patients undergoing difficult medical procedures. It can help lessen pain and improve mood, she said. Music therapy can also help depressed patients express their feelings.

Music therapy has been used to keep Alzheimer's patients calm and help them improve their memories at the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function at the Beth Abraham Family of Health Services in New York City.

At Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, board-certified music therapist Elizabeth Pociask uses music therapy to help new parents calm their infants.

"Music is a natural source of distraction. When a child is visibly upset, the introduction of a novel stimulus (turning on some music) will at least temporarily divert their attention away from what is upsetting them," she explained. "The parent's singing voice accomplishes the same thing and adds the element of familiarity -- the most comforting sound for an infant will nearly always be a parent's voice. When used regularly, music and/or singing can become a calming ritual, and the infant then learns to associate the music with relaxation or sleep."

Dileo said that music therapists should be board-certified, which means they've attended at least a four-year college program, as well as completed a supervised internship and have passed a national exam.

However, less formal music programs can be helpful as well. Katherine Puckett, national director of mind-body medicine at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, said that while they don't have board-certified music therapists on staff, the centers do use music as a means to help their patients.

"Music can activate the relaxation response, which helps promote deep breathing, lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, ease muscle tension and create less stress. That can help cancer patients sleep better, and difficulty sleeping is a common problem for cancer patients," Puckett said.

"Relaxing the body can also help relieve physical pain, and people may need less pain medication," she added.

The Cancer Treatment Centers of America keep a library of music available for patients to use, and they have special events, such as drumming circles, that help provide an emotional release for their patients, Puckett said. "Some people can release their emotions through talking, but sometimes people need a non-verbal release. We've had people moved to tears in our special events," she said.

"People respond to music -- you don't have to be sick to respond to music. It's relaxing, comforting and soothing," Puckett added.

More information
To learn more about music therapy, visit the American Music Therapy Association.

Health Tip: Massage During Pregnancy

(HealthDay News) - The medical community continues to debate the merits of getting a massage during pregnancy, according to the American Pregnancy Association.

Before you get a massage while you're pregnant, always check with your doctor. The association believes for many pregnant women, massage can offer benefits that include:

• Improved regulation of hormones related to stress and anxiety.
• Reduced swelling of the joints.
• Improvement of nerve pain.
• Better circulation.
• Fewer muscle aches and pains.
• Better sleep.

The association advises that you should always work with a certified prenatal massage therapist, who is attuned to the needs of pregnant women. Of particular concern may be your body's position during the massage. Discuss this with your doctor and massage therapist in advance.

Women with high-risk pregnancies or medical conditions such as preeclampsia should be particularly careful about discussing the risks of massage with their physician.

Docs urged to ask young heart patients about cocaine

Story Highlights

Cocaine use can result in symptoms that look like a heart attack

• Cocaine-related chest pain is a heart attack in only 1 percent to 6 percent of patients


• 2 common heart attack treatments can be dangerous to those using cocaine


• Admitting illegal substance use confidential; info won't be reported to authorities

DALLAS , Texas (AP) -- Younger ER patients with heart attack symptoms should be asked whether they've recently used cocaine, which can cause similar chest pain, the American Heart Association warns doctors.

For these patients, honesty can be a matter of life or death: Some heart attack treatments can be deadly to someone using cocaine.

New guidelines published online Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation say that emergency room doctors need to be aware that symptoms of a heart attack in younger patients with no heart disease risk factors may be caused by cocaine use.

The drug can cause chest pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, palpitations, dizziness, nausea and heavy sweating -- all symptoms of a heart attack.

"Not knowing what you are dealing with and giving the wrong therapies could mean death rather than benefit," said Dr. James Reiffel, professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital.

The number of cocaine-related users visiting ERs rose 47 percent from 1995 to 2002, increasing from 135,711 to 199,198, according to the government's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (That's a tiny percentage of the more than 100 million patient visits to emergency rooms each year.)

Weight-Loss Drug Fights Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

(HealthDay News) -- Mice given the weight-loss drug rimonabant became resistant to alcohol's fat-building effects in the liver, which suggests the medication may help fight alcoholic fatty liver in humans, says a U.S. study.

Alcoholism is the leading cause of liver disease in Western societies, according to background information in the study.

Rimonabant, which blocks cannabinoid receptors, is approved for weight loss in several European countries but has not been approved in the United States. Last June, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel recommended that rimonabant should not be given the FDA's blessing because of continuing concerns about increased risks for suicidal thoughts among some users.

In this latest study, the researchers found that mice fed a low-fat diet and ethanol showed an increase in the gene encoding the CB1 cannabinoid receptor and in liver levels of an endocannabinoid called 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG). These mice developed fatty livers.

Another group of mice that received the same diet plus rimonabant did not differ from mice fed a control diet. And mice lacking CB1 receptors, either throughout the body or only in the liver, were protected from alcoholic fatty liver.

"What makes these findings particularly interesting from our perspective is that they may have practical implications," said study author George Kunos, of the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "Treatment of animals with a [cannabinoid receptor] antagonist largely prevented alcohol's effect. It suggests that the development of fatty liver in those who use alcohol could be interfered with, or perhaps reversed, with such treatment."

The findings were published in the March issue of Cell Metabolism.

"Although alcoholic fatty liver is reversible in the early stages by cessation of drinking, this is often not feasible," the study authors wrote. "The present findings suggest that treatment with a CB1 antagonist may slow the development of fatty liver and thus prevent its progression to more severe and irreversible forms of liver disease."

Drugs that selectively act on CB1 receptors found outside of the brain might help fight fatty liver with less risk of side effects such as anxiety and depression, they said.

"Rimonabant has recently been introduced in Europe for the treatment of visceral obesity and the metabolic syndrome, which themselves are known risk factors for [liver disease]. Clinical trials testing the effectiveness of CB1 receptor blockers in the treatment of both alcoholic and nonalcoholic fatty liver and their more severe sequelae may be warranted," the researchers concluded.

More information
The American Liver Foundation has more about fatty liver.

Health Tip: Anxiety Attacks

(HealthDay News) -- Anxiety attacks attacks cause sudden, severe and sometimes paralyzing fear, often for no apparent reason.
The American Academy of Family Physicians lists these common symptoms of an anxiety attack:

• Feeling shortness of breath or a choking feeling.
• 
  Tightness or pain in the chest, and rapid or pounding heart.
• 
  Rapid pulse.
• 
  Dizziness, nausea, sweating and lightheadedness.
• Shaking or trembling.
• Hot flashes, chills or feelings of tingling or numbness in the hands and feet.
• Feelings of a dream-like state, losing control or going crazy.