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The 600,000 older Australians who suffer from back pain have a 13 per cent increased risk of dying from any cause, University of Sydney research has found.

Published in the European Journal of Pain, the study of 4390 Danish twins aged more than 70 years investigated whether spinal pain increased the rate of all-cause and disease-specific cardiovascular mortality.

Low back pain is a major problem, ranked as the highest contributor to disability in the world. Nearly four million people in Australia suffer from low back pain and the total cost of treatment exceeds $1 billion a year.

Psoriasis is a lifelong disease that is associated with significant cosmetic and physical disability and puts patients at increased risk for many major medical disorders. A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Calgary, Canada, have found that psoriasis patients who developed depression were at a 37% greater risk of subsequently developing psoriatic arthritis, compared with psoriasis patients who did not develop depression. Their findings are published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

Psoriasis is a long-lasting inflammatory skin disease characterized by red, itchy, and scaly patches of skin.

Injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee frequently leads to early-onset osteoarthritis, a painful condition that can occur even if the patient has undergone ACL reconstruction to prevent its onset. A new review looks at the ability of two different reconstruction techniques to restore normal knee motion and potentially slow degenerative changes.

The findings suggest that where a graft is placed on the femur is crucial for restoring joint function and knee motion and for preventing cartilage from thinning, a degenerative change associated with osteoarthritis.

"ACL injury can age the knee by an estimated 30 years," said Dr.

New evidence suggests that receiving low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) to speed up bone healing after fracture has little or no impact on pain or recovery time, say a panel of international experts in The BMJ.

They say LIPUS does not represent an efficient use of health resources and recommend that it should be stopped.

Their advice is part of The BMJ's 'Rapid Recommendations' initiative - to produce rapid and trustworthy guidance based on new evidence to help doctors make better decisions with their patients.

Emergency patients treated with naproxen and placebo had outcomes as good as or better than patients treated with naproxen and diazepam (trade name Valium) for acute lower back pain, according to the results of a double-blind, randomized clinical trial published in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

"Our study contributes to the growing body of literature indicating that, in general, most medications do not improve acute lower back pain," said lead study author Benjamin Friedman, MD, MS, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Health System in Bronx, New York.

Depression is a medical condition that causes a person to experience feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and loss of motivation.

 

More than just a temporary case of the blues, depression can be long-lasting. It may affect a person's ability to perform daily activities, and can lead to thoughts of suicide.

One of the hallmark symptoms associated with depression is persistent lack of motivation. Without the desire or willingness to complete regular tasks, a person can sink more deeply into their depression.

The underlying issues that accompany depression need to be addressed first and then lifestyle and wellness measures can be used to help an individual with depression live a more motivated life.

Here are five highlights:

1. The invite-only society encompasses fewer than 700 surgeons.

2. Physicians are elected based on the number of shoulder and elbow surgeries performed, publications, fellowship training and reputation.

3. Dr. Garbis, an orthopedic surgery assistant professor at Maywood, Ill.-based Loyola Medicine, specializes in minimally invasive arthroscopic shoulder and elbow surgery, elbow and shoulder disorders, shoulder replacement and sports medicine.

4. He treats rotator cuff tears, joint arthritis and overuse injuries as well as tennis elbow ant arthritis.

University of Iowa Health Care researchers report that the results of a study of injury rates in youth football leagues did not show that flag football is safer than tackle football.

Concerns about the rate of concussions among athletes and the long term effects of repeated head injuries lead to discussion that children under the age of 12 should not participate in contact sports such as tackle football.

The UI researchers studied three large youth football leagues with almost 3,800 participants. The research team compared the number of injuries, severe injuries, and concussions in players competing on flag football teams and tackle football squads.

Evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a potential cause of dementia caused by repeated blows to the head, has been found in the brains of former association football (soccer) players examined at the UCL Queen Square Brain Bank.

The study, funded by The Drake Foundation and published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica, looked at 14 retired footballers with dementia who were referred to the Old Age Psychiatry Service in Swansea, Wales, between 1980 and 2010. Permission from their next-of-kin was provided to perform post-mortem examinations, which were carried out in six ex-players. Post-mortem analysis of the brain was carried out by researchers from UCL and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.