GOOD NEWS

Drug for stroke

For years doctors have been seeking drugs that could protect the brain’s delicate nerve structure from damage caused by stroke. Last week a report in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that an investigational drug called Cerovive (NKY-059) may limit the early damage caused by stroke. The drug works by blocking free-radicals (or reactive oxygen species produced in the body) that trigger inflammation, which destroys brain tissue. But the drug didn’t reduce long-term disability or reduce stroke mortality. So the message from stroke researchers is “cautious optimism”.

Slow start, big finish

Researchers in Hamilton, Ontario, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that a significant number of extremely-low-birth-weight babies ? infants who weighed one to two pounds at birth ? grow-up to be fully functioning adults. The researchers followed 149 tiny babies born between 1977 and 1982 to adulthood and compared their outcomes with 133 normal-weight babies born during the same period.

BAD NEWS

Pregnancy blues

A study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine shed light on the complex issue of treating depression during pregnancy. Researchers from the University of California San Diego reported that babies born to women who took anti-depressants like Prozac or Zoloft (the so-called selective serotonin uptake inhibitors) during pregnancy were at risk for a serious respiratory problem called persistent pulmonary hypertension.

Slow reaction risky

People who fare poorly on tests intended to assess mental skills are at greater risk of early death, a study in Psychosomatic Medicine reports. The researchers based at the University of Edinburgh say that they found a strong link between slower reaction times and a higher mortality rate in a given period. People who did poorly on memory tests also had a somewhat higher mortality rate.