4 January, 2014

Talking therapy offers `little help` for schizophrenics

A new study has revealed that talking therapies offer ‘little benefit’ to people with schizophrenia.

A team of scientists at University of Hertfordshire analysed over 50 studies on the use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) from around the world and found that it only had a ‘small therapeutic effect’ on schizophrenic symptoms, the BBC reported.

The study led by Keith Laws, professor of cognitive neuropsychology at the University of Hertfordshire, found that CBT did have a small benefit in treating delusions and hallucinations – which are characteristic symptoms of the disease.  

However, according to the researchers, who looked at 52 studies carried out over the last 20 years, even this small effect disappeared when only studies using ”blind testing” were taken into account.

The study was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. 

Source: http://health.india.com

04.01.2014

Discovered – our body’s own immune ‘killer’ cells that can kill bacteria in TB!

A special class of immune cells called ‘invariant natural killer T cells’ keep the deadly tuberculosis infection in check – a heartening news for India that has the most number of tuberculosis cases in the world.

‘Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a major cause of death worldwide. Most healthy people can defend themselves against tuberculosis, but they need all parts of their immune system to work together. We were interested in identifying the mechanisms that different types of T cells use to control Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection,’ said senior author Samuel Behar of University of Massachusetts Medical School, US.

His team found that when ‘invariant natural killer T cells’ encounter infected macrophages – the human target cells of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) – T cells somehow prevented Mtb from growing and multiplying inside the macrophages.

Using a number of cell culture systems and experiments in mice to dissect the interaction, they found that when T cells are confronted with Mtb-infected macrophages, they respond in two different ways.  

One is that they produce and release interferon gamma, a broad-spectrum immune system activator. But when the scientists blocked interferon gamma action, they found that the T cells could still inhibit Mtb growth in the macrophages, said the study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

‘Understanding how such T cells contribute to the control and elimination of Mtb could lead to novel therapeutic approaches that strengthen their activity and boost the overall immune response during infection,’ concluded the study.

Source: http://health.india.com

04.01.2014

 

 

 

 

 

Affirm the positive, visualize the positive and expect the positive