October 23, 2008
Newsmakers
DETOX SCAM: Late-night television ads promote a product called Kinoki Cleansing Detox Pads, which are often applied to the feet, and claim to remove toxins from the body. A recent article in The Los Angeles Times confirmed that the pads do not work, and are a scam. “I think they’re pretty silly,” said Steve Gilbert, UW affiliate associate professor of environmental health and director of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders. “Few metals or other toxins are excreted through the skin and people don’t suffer from overloads of ‘metabolic waste’ — which the product claims to remove — because we already have effective disposal systems such as urine and feces.”
ESCHEW THE NEW: New medications for schizophrenia in children are no more effective than older drugs and are more likely to cause harmful side effects, according to a new study recently reported on in The New York Times. The UW’s John McClellan, an associate professor of psychiatry, was co-author of the study, published online by the American Journal of Psychiatry. McClellan told the Times that older schizophrenia drugs should now be considered as an alternative. “Some of the children in this study gained 15 pounds or more in eight weeks,” he said. “That’s as much as adults gain in a year on these medications. Children are especially susceptible to these side effects, and this has broad implications across the board, for the use of these agents to treat any disorder.”
QUALITY CARE: Arguments over the merits of day care for children continue apace, but a recent article in The New York Times noted a growing consensus among researchers that quality in care programs — having trained staff who are responsive to children’s needs — is key to helping children succeed. The article quoted Cathryn Booth-LaForce, UW professor of family and child nursing. “One of the important things is what happens when children are distressed — when they’re crying and they’re upset, and they need attention,” said Booth-LaForce, who is also the principal investigator in a long-term study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. “Is someone meeting their needs quickly? That’s critical. When infants and young children have a history of getting their needs met, they tend to be less distressed. There used to be this idea that if you picked them up when they were crying it would make them cry more — that just isn’t the case.” That leads, she said, to what she calls “the two-arm problem: you’ve got three crying infants and only two arms, you can’t pick up all the infants at once.” As a result, she said, the quality of infant care provided in child care centers tends to be lower than infant care in more informal settings, and the optimal age for putting a child in a day care center may be around 2 or 3.
AFTER SHOCKS: A shock from a defibrillator is more than just a life-saving jolt, it also serves as a warning that the patient’s condition may be deteriorating, according to a new study discussed in an article on Bloomberg.com. Heart failure patients were found to be five times as likely to die after their first shock compared with those who did not receive a shock. The article also quoted Jeanne Poole, associate professor and director the UW’s electrophysiology program in the Division of Cardiology. “These patients had their lives saved, and they are now clearly identified as a high-risk population,” Poole said. “We need to think of what else we can do to minimize that patient’s risk of death in the near term and try to prolong their lives as much as possible.”
Newmakers is a periodic column reporting on the coverage of the University of Washington by the national press and broadcasting services.
