The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) has released a new and improved, user-friendly website combining two previous ones —DO-Online and the original Osteopathic.org. The AOA calls the new site “Your Home for Health,” and it is available for members of the osteopathic family and the public. At Osteopathic.org viewers will find:

• Fresh, modern look throughout
• Enhanced search capabilities
• Simpler navigation system
• A rotating news section on the home page
• More multi-media content

Representing more than 70,000 osteopathic physicians (DOs) around the world, the AOA is also the accrediting agency for all osteopathic medical colleges and health care facilities. Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine are fully licensed physicians who provide a full range of services — from prescribing drugs to performing surgery –with a unique approach to patient care. Osteopathic training includes:

• teaching patients how to prevent illness and injury by maintaining a healthy lifestyle
• looking at the whole person to reach a diagnosis without focusing just on symptoms
• helping the body to heal itself
• believing that all parts of the body work together and influence one another
• performing osteopathic manipulative treatment

For more information, visit the new AOA website.

Medical schools are doing their best to increase the number of future doctors, but apparently not enough to meet burgeoning patient demand, according to a recent article in Modern Healthcare.

An Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) briefing noted that across the country, freshman enrollment increased by 1.5% over 2009 (18,665 students). Some medical schools are expanding the size of incoming classes, while new schools have recently earned accreditation (such as Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, Hofstra University School of Medicine, and Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine). Twelve additional medical schools are currently seeking accreditation, and this may with the expected physician shortage (a deficit of about 60,000 doctors by 2015, according to the AAMC).

AAMC President and CEO Darrell Kirch stated: “Physician development is dependent not just on new medical schools, but also on the creation of new residency training slots. We’ve been very clear with Congress about the need to expand those slots by 15% in order to meet demand and create physicians who can practice in their communities.” The rest of the article can be found at Modern Healthcare.

Are vaccine opponents wrong, and is that hurting children?

A new study appearing in the October issue of Behavioral Neuroscience suggests that motherhood may cause the brain to grow. Preliminary research published by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that the brains of new mothers bulked up in areas linked to motivation and behavior, and that mothers who raved the most about their new offspring showed the greatest growth in key parts of the mid-brain.[audio:http://hospitalstay.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/18-Plug-In-Baby-2.mp3|titles=Plug In Baby]

Animal studies suggest that structural changes occur in the maternal brain during the early postpartum period in regions such as the hypothalamus, amygdala, parietal lobe, and prefrontal cortex and such changes are related to the expression of maternal behaviors. … Read more →

Derived from the Latin word meaning “I shall please,” a placebo is a simulated medical intervention that can produce an actual or even perceived improvement. This improvement is called a “placebo effect.” In medical research, placebos depend upon controlled and measured deception, usually appearing in the form of inert tablets, sham surgery, and other false information. [audio:http://hospitalstay.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Black-Eyed-1.mp3|titles=Black-Eyed]

A new article appearing in the Annals of Internal Medicine entitled “What’s in Placebos: Who Knows?” explores the lack of scientific control in preparing this common element found in many controlled scientific studies. … Read more →

Winston Churchill once said: “I have taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me.” [audio:http://hospitalstay.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/11-D.R.I.N.K..mp3|titles=D.R.I.N.K.]

Alcohol, a volatile, flammable, and colorless liquid, is one of the oldest recreational drugs. Alcohol is also one of the most commonly abused substances, and apparently men are twice as likely to develop alcoholism as women. Previously unclear as to why men and women responded differently to alcohol, a new study appearing in Biological Psychiatry reveals that dopamine may be part of the reason. … Read more →

Frederich Nietzsche, and many others, wrote:  “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” A new study entitled “Whatever Does Not Kill Us: Cumulative Lifetime Adversity, Vulnerability and Resilience,” appearing soon in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology attempts to prove this theory.

The study, authored by Mark Seery, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo, E. Alison Holman, PhD, assistant professor of nursing sciences, University of California, Irvine, and Roxane Cohen Silver, PhD, professor of psychology and social behavior and medicine at UC Irvine, examined a sample of people across the nation who reported some history of adverse experiences in their lifetime. … Read more →

On October 15, 2010, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Botox injection (onabotulinumtoxinA) to prevent headaches in adult patients with chronic migraine. According to the FDA’s Website, chronic migraine is defined as “having a history of migraine and experiencing a headache on most days of the month.” Generally described as an intense pulsing or throbbing pain in one area of the head, migraine headaches are often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and sound. Women tend to suffer from migraine headaches three times more than men.

… Read more →

By order of the President of the United States of America, October 17 through October 23, 2010 is National Character Counts Week.

A recent study appearing in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has identified four separate types of compulsive gamblers. Working with 1,171 individuals at the Pathological Gambling Unit at Bellvitge-IDIBELL Hospital in Barcelona, researchers concluded that two of the four types identified include pathological gamblers who exhibit problems in controlling their responses, but only one type “shows signs of a significant concurrent psychopathology.” … Read more →