This may come as no surprise to residents of New York City and other big urban centers: Living there can be bad for your mental health.
Now researchers have found a possible reason why. Imaging scans show that in city dwellers or people who grew up in urban areas, certain areas of the brain react more vigorously to stress. That may help explain how city life can boost the risks of schizophrenia and other mental disorders, researchers said.
Previous research has found that growing up in a big city raises the risk of schizophrenia. And there’s some evidence that city dwellers are at heightened risk for mood and anxiety disorders, although the evidence is mixed.
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Pune, June 13 India’s vaccine major, the Serum Institute, has pledged support to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation programme by announcing a 60 percent cut in the prices of pentavalent vaccine, a company statement said here Monday.
The announcement was made by Serum Institute’s chairman and managing director Cyrus Poonawalla at a gathering of international healthcare agencies and global donors in London Monday.
Reiterating his company’s commitment to slash the prices of pentavalent – which helps protect children against five potential killers – diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza type B – he said the vassine would be now available at the lowest possible cost of Rs.100 only.
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A spending watchdog has attacked the management of community health services in Scotland in a “deeply disturbing” report.
Audit Scotland claims today that the bodies charged with overseeing community care have largely failed to deliver improvements, and that some did not even know how many staff they managed.
Its report paints a chaotic picture of Community Health Partnerships (CHPs), which are aimed at bringing council and health service staff together to plan services.
Audit Scotland called for a fundamental review of the entire CHP system, which is responsible for spending 3.2 billion a year.
Labour and the Conservatives described the findings as damning and worrying and urged the Scottish Government to launch a complete review of them.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said CHPs must change as they care for increasing numbers of elderly people.
The British Medical Association in Scotland said the report highlighted how the partnerships were bureaucratic monoliths caught up in their own internal processes rather than helping to organise services to meet patients needs.
Dr Dean Marshall, chair of the BMAs Scottish General Practitioners Committee, said: This is a highly critical report which confirms our experience of the management and performance of these organisations.
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Egypt lifted a four-year-old blockade on the Gaza Strip’s main link to the outside world Saturday, bringing relief to the crowded territory’s 1.5 million Palestinians but deepening a rift with Israel since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year.
The Egyptian move will allow thousands of Gazans to move freely in and out of the area heightening Israeli fears that militants and weapons could easily reach its doorstep.
Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after the Islamic militant Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007. The closure, which also included tight Israeli restrictions at its cargo crossings with Gaza and a naval blockade, was meant to weaken Hamas, but it also fueled an economic crisis in the densely populated territory.
Hundreds of Gazans gathered early Saturday as the first bus load of passengers crossed the border at 9 a.m.
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