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Read the latest articles relevant to your clinical practice, including exclusive insights from Healthed surveys and polls.

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plaster protectors
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Plaster protectors

This resource is a little different to the usual guideline or website that is commonly discussed in this newsletter. This is a product that was recommended by a number of patients and has the potential to really improve the quality of someone’s life. Quite simply it’s a waterproof protector that goes over a patient’s plaster or dressing. Called Blocc’s protectors, these covers are made of a type of rubber that stretches over the cast or dressing to make a waterproof seal. And apparently they are excellent at keeping the dressing or plaster dry.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Medical termination not an option in the country
Prof Jane Tomnay
  • Clinical Articles

Medical termination not an option in the country

Around one in six Australian women have had an abortion by their mid-30s. These women come from all age groups and demographics: some are mothers already, while others are child-free; some are partnered, others are single. Abortion was removed from the New South Wales Crimes Act in October and is now legal in all Australian states and territories, under certain circumstances. However, many women have difficulties accessing these services, especially in rural and regional areas. This needs to change.

By Prof Jane Tomnay, Dr Catherine Orr
SCCs more deadly in the immunosuppressed
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

SCCs more deadly in the immunosuppressed

Not only are immunosuppressed people at increased risk of developing skin cancer, new research shows the skin cancer they get is more likely to be aggressive and multifocal. According to the retrospective study of a cohort of almost 800 patients who had been treated for cutaneous SCC of the head and neck at a US tertiary cancer care centre, immunosuppression was found to be independently associated with a worse outcome.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
‘Safety signals’ may help slow down anxiety
Yale University
  • Clinical Articles

‘Safety signals’ may help slow down anxiety

A novel form of treatment has been identified for one of the most common mental health issues globally, anxiety. Roughly one in three people will suffer from the condition at some point in their lives, experiencing irrational fear brought on by stressors ranging from spiders to public speaking. Current treatment options are limited. Some medications provide relief, but can also cause side effects. Cognitive behavioural therapy can also be used, typically exposure-based therapies that allow patients to gradually face and overcome their fears. But for a substantial proportion of sufferers, these options are not effective.

By Yale University
Western Australia looks set to legalise voluntary assisted dying. Here’s what’s likely to happen from next week
Courtney Hempton
  • Clinical Articles

Western Australia looks set to legalise voluntary assisted dying. Here’s what’s likely to happen from next week

Western Australia is on the brink of becoming the second state in Australia to legalise voluntary assisted dying, with its upper house last night passing the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2019 (WA). A total of 55 amendments to the initial version of the bill were passed. The bill will return to the lower house next week to review the amendments. If these amendments are ratified as expected, WA will follow the historic introduction of voluntary assisted dying in Victoria, where the option has been available since June 2019.

By Courtney Hempton
Human BPA levels may have been underestimated
Dr Catharine Paddock
  • Clinical Articles

Human BPA levels may have been underestimated

Exposure to common industrial chemical and endocrine disruptor bisphenol A (BPA) has been linked to a range of health impacts, from reproductive disorders to heart disease. Although widespread, the level of exposure of most people to BPA was thought to be low enough that the potential for harm was minimal, but new research has indicated that the method of measuring exposure used thus far may be seriously flawed. As they relate in their report in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, when researchers compared the indirect method of measuring BPA exposure with a newer, direct method, they found that the indirect method consistently returned an inaccurately low reading. The direct measurement found levels of BPS as much as “44-times higher than the latest geometric mean for adults in the USA reported by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES),” note the authors.

By Dr Catharine Paddock
reversing antibiotic resistance
Dr Mina Bakhit, Prof Chris Del Mar, & Helena Kornfält Isberg, MD
  • Clinical Articles

Reversing antibiotic resistance? Here’s how Sweden is doing it

The antibiotic resistance threat is real. In the years to come, we will no longer be able to treat and cure many infections we once could. We’ve had no new classes of antibiotics in decades, and the development pipeline is largely dry. Each time we use antibiotics, the bacteria in our bodies become more resistant to the few antibiotics we still have. The problem seems clear and the solution obvious: to prescribe our precious antibiotics only when absolutely needed. Implementing this nationally is not an easy task. But Australia could take cues from other countries making significant progress in this area, such as Sweden.

By Dr Mina Bakhit, Prof Chris Del Mar, & Helena Kornfält Isberg, MD
addiction relapse
University of Washington Health Sciences/UW Medicine
  • Clinical Articles

Researchers find clue to preventing addiction relapse

It takes a supreme effort of will to overcome an addiction, but even more so to avoid relapse. The effect of relapse can hugely effect quality of life or even prove fatal. To help give recovering addicts a fighting chance, researchers at University of Washington have been studying whether changing the activity of neurons in the nucleus accumbens, the region of the brain that regulates addictive behaviour, can help to prevent relapse. They achieved this targeted change in brain activity using chemogenetic receptors in a study conducted on rats who had been exposed to heroin.

By University of Washington Health Sciences/UW Medicine
concussion in kids
University of Queensland
  • Clinical Articles

Concussion recovery not clear cut for children

Most children will recover fully from concussion, but one in ten has persistent symptoms. University of Queensland researchers have just completed a study between these symptoms and long-term disability risk, and the results are striking. Poor sleep post-concussion in particular was linked to reduced brain function and decreased grey matter, with fatigue and attention difficulties also being potential indicators. Using information on reductions in brain function, researchers were able to predict with 86 percent accuracy how children would recover two months from sustaining a concussion. “Generally, children with persistent concussion symptoms will have alterations to their visual, motor and cognitive brain regions but we don’t have a clear understanding of how this develops and how it relates to future recovery,” said study author and UQ Child Health Research Centre Research Fellow, Dr Kartik Iyer.

By University of Queensland
Guidelines for treating SCCs and BCCs
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Guidelines for treating SCCs and BCCs

The latest updated version of the clinical practice guidelines for keratinocyte cancer are now available and worth checking out, especially if you do a lot of skin work. Keratinocyte cancer is the new way to talk about non-melanoma skin cancer and basically refers to basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas. The new guidelines, which were developed by an Australian ‘non-remunerated working group’, incorporate a number of recent developments in the non-surgical treatment of these cancers. They provide suitable options for treating more advanced and metastatic cancers, and give guidance on how to manage patients who are believed to be at greater risk of developing these cancers, eg those who are on immunosuppression therapy.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Discussing MDMA
Jarryd Bartle, Nicole Lee & Paula Ross
  • Clinical Articles

Discussing MDMA

We all want to reduce drug-related harm and ensure young people don’t take unnecessary risks. But decades of research shows fear isn’t an effective way to do this. This week, Newscorp Australia released The Ripple Effect, a series of articles and accompanying videos about party drugs, aimed at parents of young people. Rather than drawing on the science about reducing harm, the series overstates the nation’s drug problem and the likelihood of problems from taking MDMA (ecstasy). And it’s likely to scare the wits out of parents of teens. So, what do parents really need to know about party drugs?

By Jarryd Bartle, Nicole Lee & Paula Ross
Simple blood test a mortality predictor
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Simple blood test a mortality predictor

Low lymphocyte levels can used as an indicator of an increased risk of mortality, US researchers say. Lymphopaenia, readily measured through the common full blood count, has been shown to be associated with an increased likelihood of death from conditions such as heart disease, cancer and respiratory infections, according to a retrospective study published in JAMA Network Open. This relationship was found to be consistent, independent of age, other serum immune markers and traditional clinical risk factors. However, when patients with lymphopaenia also had other abnormal immune markers, namely elevated red cell distribution width (RDW) and a raised C-reactive protein (CRP), they ‘had a strikingly high risk of mortality’, the study authors said.

By Dr Linda Calabresi

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