Harvard Health Content API

Improvements from a brain implant treatment last for at least 3 years in people with Parkinson’s disease, a follow-up study finds. The study focused on treatment with deep brain stimulation. This involves implanting a device inside the brain. It uses current from a battery to stimulate one area of the brain. The study included 159 people. They were randomly divided into two groups. One group had the device implanted in an area called the subthalamic nucleus (STN). The others got the implants in a less-studied area called the globus pallidus interna (GPi). Both groups had similar improvements in symptoms such as tremors, muscle tone and speech. The follow-up found that people were still doing better 3 years after surgery. People receiving stimulus to the GPi region also had improvements in thinking and learning abilities. The journal Neurology published the study online.

A hospital stay greatly increases the chances that a person with Alzheimer’s disease will enter a nursing home or die in the next year, a new study finds. Other recent research showed that people with Alzheimer’s have more hospital stays than other older adults. The new study showed the consequences. It focused on 771 Alzheimer’s patients. All of them were living at home and fairly high-functioning. Medical records showed that about half of them had a hospital stay. About half of this group had delirium in the hospital. People with delirium may be extremely agitated and confused. Among those who did not have a hospital stay, about 4% entered a nursing home each year. About 2% died. But in the year after a hospital stay, 29% went into a nursing home and 9% died. Among those who had delirium, 43% moved to a nursing home in the next year. About 15% died.

The most common type of weight-loss (bariatric) surgery may increase people’s risk of alcohol abuse, a new study finds. The study included almost 2,000 women and men who had weight-loss surgery. Before the surgery, they filled out questionnaires about their drinking habits. They also answered the questions 1 and 2 years after surgery. By 2 years after surgery, 11% of those who had gastric bypass surgery drank to excess. That was an increase of 50% from before the surgery. There was no increase among people who had gastric banding, another type of weight-loss surgery. About 5% drank to excess before and after surgery. Gastric bypass restricts the size of the stomach. This smaller stomach is attached directly to a lower part of the small intestine. The rest of the stomach and intestine are bypassed. Therefore, less food is absorbed.

Prescriptions written for children have dropped 7% in the last decade, a new study finds. But prescriptions rose for some drugs, including those for attention disorders. Researchers looked at prescription numbers for children through age 17. The study covered the years 2002 through 2010. The types of prescriptions that fell included antibiotics. Experts have pressed for less use of antibiotics to reduce the growth of bacteria that resist these drugs. Cold and cough medicines also were prescribed less. U.S. drug regulators warned in 2008 that these drugs should not be used in young children. Prescriptions for allergy medicines also fell. Many of these medicines now can be bought over the counter. Prescriptions for drugs used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) jumped 46% during the study period.