BMJ No 7139 Volume 316

Press Releases Saturday 18 April 1998

PERSISTENT TUMMY ACHES IN CHILDHOOD MAY BE LINKED TO PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS IN LATER LIFE
PEOPLE FIND FOLLOWING DIETARY ADVICE TO LOWER CHOLESTEROL DIFFICULT
PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT FOR STROKE PATIENTS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED


PERSISTENT TUMMY ACHES IN CHILDHOOD MAY BE LINKED TO
PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS IN LATER LIFE

(Why do children have chronic abdominal pain and what happens to them when
they grow up?  Population based cohort study)

Children who have recurrent abdominal pain tend to come from anxious
families which frequently visit the doctor and their mothers are more
likely to be neurotic, report Dr Matthew Hotopf et al in this week's BMJ.
Such parental anxiety and preoccupations with physical health may reinforce
the child's concern about physiological and minor medical conditions, such
as stomach aches, as in most cases the symptoms cannot be explained
medically.  However, the authors found that persistent abdominal pain in
childhood did not lead to abdominal problems in adulthood (little
bellyachers do not become big bellyachers) but instead seemed to be a
predictor of psychiatric disorders in later life.

The report by Hotopf et al was based on the Medical Research Council
national survey of health and development and followed people born in 1946
through to the age of 36 years.

Contact:
Professor Simon Wessely, Professor of Epidemiological and Liaison
Psychiatry, Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College School of
Medicine and Dentistry and Institute of Psychiatry, London
s.wessely{at}iop.bpmf.ac.uk
 

PEOPLE FIND FOLLOWING DIETARY ADVICE TO LOWER
CHOLESTEROL DIFFICULT

(Systematic review of dietary internention trails to lower blood total
cholesterol in free-living subjects)

Dietary advice to help people lower their cholesterol levels is often not
as effective as we might like to think.  These findings, published in this
week's BMJ, are based on research conducted by Dr Jane Armstrong and
colleagues at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford.  The report found that
dietary advice to modify fat intake on average achieved a decrease in blood
cholesterol of only three to six per cent, which
is less than the predicted reductions.  They conclude that the main reason
is likely to be poor compliance with dietary advice.

Contact:
Dr Jane Armitage, Senior Research Fellow, Clinical Trial Service Unit and
Epidemiological Studies Unit, Harkness Building, Radcliffe Infirmary,
Oxford
Jane.armitage{at}ctsu.ox.ac.uk
 

PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT FOR STROKE PATIENTS
SHOULD BE CONSIDERED

(Suicide in patients with stroke: epidemiological study)

Women and people under the age of 60 years of both sexes who have had a
stroke, have a significantly increased risk of suicide, suggest Dr Elsebeth
Stenager et al in this week's BMJ.  The authors note that depression is
common in stroke patients and particularly in female patients, which may
explain their findings.  With this information in mind, Stenager et al
suggest that when caring for a stroke patient a greater emphasis should be
placed on the psychological aspects of living with the impairment imposed
by stroke.

Contact:
Dr Elsebeth Nylev Stenager, Registrar, Department of Social Medicine,
Odense Municipality, Vindegade 18, 5000 Odense C, Denmark
 
 
For accredited journalists
Embargoed press releases:
These are available from the Public Affairs Division, BMA House,
Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JR (contact Jill Shepherd;jshepher{at}bma.org.uk)
 
and from
the EurekAlert website, run by the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (www.eurekalert.org)
 
 
Please remember to mention the BMJ as source when publicising an article
and to inform your readers that they can read its full text on the
journal's web site (www.bmj.com).

 
 

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ