Here is your NEWS-Line for Occupational Therapists and COTAs eNewsletter. For the latest news, jobs, education and blogs, bookmark our news page and job board or to take us everywhere with you, save this link to your phone. Also, enjoy the latest issue of NEWS-Line magazine, always free.
NEWS:
Physical Fitness Since Childhood Predicts Cerebellar Volume In Adolescence
Physical fitness since childhood is associated with cerebellar grey matter volume in adolescents. According to a recent study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Eastern Finland, those who were stronger, faster and more agile, in other words, had better neuromuscular fitness since childhood, had larger Crus I grey matter volume in adolescence.
Despite the importance of the developing cerebellum on cognition and learning, the associations between physical fitness and cerebellar volume in adolescents have remained unclear. This study examined the associations of physical fitness with grey matter volume of cerebellar lobules related to cognition in adolescents, and whether these associations differed between females and males.
Those adolescents with better neuromuscular fitness since childhood had larger Crus I grey matter volume. However, adolescents with bette
Read Full Article
Penn Researcher Studies Hidden Immune Connections in Arthritis
What role does the immune system play when some people with psoriasis go on to develop inflammatory arthritis?
The skin and the joints are seemingly unrelated organs. Yet about a third of the 8 million Americans with the skin condition psoriasis will eventually develop psoriatic arthritis. In this disease, the body’s immune system causes painful inflammation in the joints in addition to the overproduction of skin cells that creates itchy, scaly psoriasis plaques. But how?
This seeming paradox has intrigued Alexis Ogdie-Beatty, MD, MSCE, since early in medical residency at Penn, when she met her mentor, the renowned rheumatologist H. Ralph Schumacher, Jr., MD. Then, during fellowship (also at Penn), she met dermatologist Joel Gelfand, MD, MSCE. “As he talked about psoriatic arthritis, I realized this was the perfect focus of study to help me understand inflammatory joint disease because
Read Full Article
Why Epilepsy in Children Is Easily Missed
Q&A With Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s Deborah Holder, MD
Parents often miss the signs that their child has epilepsy, according to Deborah Holder, MD, a neurologist at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s and a pediatric epilepsy expert.
"Every day in clinic I see children who have had for years what many people call ‘funny spells,’" Holder said. "Sometimes I start talking to a parent and find out the parent has had ‘funny spells’ for years, but had no idea they were epileptic seizures."
That’s because many people with epilepsy experience subtle symptoms, such as not being able to talk for a few seconds, Holder said. When the momentary symptoms disappear, people tend to forget to look for the source.
"Sometimes children experiencing seizures will see flashing lights or have temporary blurred vision, which leads them being misdiagnosed with migraine," Holder said.
About 1 in 26 Americ
Read Full Article
Pain Scores, Age Can Help Identify Patients More Likely to Use Few or No Opioids After Surgery
Patients who are younger or who haven’t taken opioid pain medication before are more likely to not need any after many common surgeries, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine. Additionally, the study, published in Annals of Surgery Open, showed that simply understanding a patient’s history with opioids and how they are feeling upon leaving the hospital could help clinicians tailor the amount of prescription pain medicines they may need as they transition home.
“At face value, it seems quite simple that asking patients about their pain and use of pain medicine would help inform what we do, but it is often easy to lose sight of the value of these patient-informed moments,” said first author Anish Agarwal, MD, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine and the deputy director of the Penn Medicine Center for Insights to Outcomes. “These are simple data points, but
