Cancer Survivors May Face More Challenges When Adopting

MONDAY, July 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Cancer survivors may face roadblocks when trying to adopt children, a new study finds.

Cancer and cancer treatments can leave some patients infertile, so many young cancer survivors turn to adoption when hoping to start, or add to, a family, the researchers noted.

For the study, 71 oncology nurses in 15 states who were taking part in a training program were asked to gather information from adoption agencies.

Not all of the adoption agencies recorded whether prospective parents were cancer survivors, but those that did keep such records had an average of 10 cancer survivors a year seeking to adopt.

Some of the agencies said some birth mothers may be reluctant to have their baby adopted by a cancer survivor. But, most said that birth mothers might feel good about choosing an adoptive parent who has overcome cancer and has an appreciation for life, the study noted.

Many adoption agencies require applicants to provide a letter from a doctor about their health and medical history. This could be a potentially discriminatory practice similar to denying jobs to people with disabilities, according to study co-leader Gwendolyn Quinn, of the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla.

The researchers also found that international adoptions have more restrictions for applicants who are cancer survivors, the researchers noted.

The nurses in the study said they gained valuable knowledge about the adoption process and felt they were better able to discuss adoption with cancer patients.

“Additionally, perhaps this data will bring to light the need for policy revisions in adoption processes that comply with ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] requirements,” Quinn said.

Findings were published online July 13 in the journal Cancer.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about cancer and fertility.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1CAPllK

What’s In a Name? For Newborns, Maybe Fewer Medical Errors

By Tara Haelle
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, July 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Using more specific names for newborns may reduce hospital mix-ups by roughly a third, a new study suggests.

Hospitals usually identify newborns by generic names such as “Babygirl Jackson” or “Brendasboy Jones” instead of the names parents give them. The reason: A patient record and name tag must be created immediately after birth, and changing records during a single hospital stay can cause confusion, said study lead author Dr. Jason Adelman, a public safety officer in the Montefiore Health System in New York City.

Since some parents haven’t settled on a name when the baby is born, it’s more efficient to use a standardized procedure for all, Adelman said.

In a previous study he conducted with 339 newborn intensive care units (NICUs) across the country, Adelman found that nearly 82 percent of them used indistinct names, such as “Babygirl Jackson” and “Babyboy Jones.” The other 18 percent of hospitals incorporated some version of the mother’s name, such as “Wendysgirl Jackson” and “Brendasboy Jones.”

“We were able to demonstrate what everyone sort of knew but couldn’t prove — that using a generic naming convention increases the risk of wrong-patient errors, such as placing orders on the wrong patient,” Adelman said.

Common errors seen with nonspecific first names can include reading imaging tests or lab specimens for the wrong patient, giving blood products to the wrong patient or giving a mother’s expressed breast-milk to the wrong patient, explained Dr. Sheryl Ross, an ob-gyn at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif.

“Improving patient safety is a top priority in health care and an added benefit is if it can be achieved in a cost-effective manner,” Ross said. “Human error is one of the main reasons mistakes happen to patients in a hospital setting.”

The study appeared online July 13 and will be published in the August print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

About 11 percent of medical errors are the result of patient misidentification, according to previous research described in this study.

“Many people knew that using only Babygirl or Babyboy was a problem, but they couldn’t really report it because people don’t like to report errors,” Adelman said. “We came up with a way to track them.”

His team used a tool that looks for all hospital orders that are placed and retracted within 10 minutes, and then placed on another patient by the same clinician within the next 10 minutes. Most of these are caught within a minute and never get carried out for the wrong patient.

The researchers tracked these errors for one year at the two NICUs of Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, N.Y. During this time, the NICUs used the generic “Babygirl Jones” type of naming.

Then the hospital adopted the more specific “Catherinesgirl Jones” version. For twins and triplets, the new procedures used numbers at the start of the name, such as “1Sallysgirl Franklin” and “2Sallysgirl Franklin.” The researchers tracked the errors for another year.

Errors dropped by 36 percent following the change. After accounting for multiple orders made at once, the researchers calculated that the new naming reduced errors by a third.

“The potential medical error that can occur when physicians or other health care professionals confuse one patient for another can be quite serious, even deadly,” said Dr. Clay Jones, a pediatrician specializing in newborns at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts. “Imagine giving a medication meant for one patient to another patient with a life-threatening allergy to it.”

Yet Jones said he is skeptical that this issue is a huge problem in NICUs, because of special alerts incorporated into patients’ identifying labels. He nevertheless found the study intriguing and the issue worth exploring.

“The results of the study are impressive if simply looking at the percent decrease in retract-and-reorder errors,” Jones said. “But we can’t draw any firm conclusions.”

He pointed out another possible explanation for the drop in errors that the authors also mentioned — that clinicians were less likely to make mistakes because they knew why infant naming procedures changed and that errors were being tracked.

“It is entirely possible that the decrease in errors only happened because people were being more careful under the eye of the study researchers,” Jones said.

Adelman said another drawback to this study is researchers cannot track the errors that actually make it to the patient. “We can only rely on reporting, and the evidence shows that doctors only report 1 percent of the errors they make,” he said.

Still, he hopes this study will prompt more hospitals to change their procedures.

“Now that there’s strong evidence that this really makes a difference, I’m hoping this will accelerate the adoption of using these more distinct names,” Adelman said. “That’s the best news for parents out there.”

More information

For more about procedures in the NICU, visit the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1CAPiq6

U.S. Hospitals May Often Miss Signs of Child Abuse

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, July 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Many U.S. hospitals may miss an opportunity to detect physical abuse in babies and toddlers, a new study reveals.

The study, of more than 300 hospitals nationwide, found a huge variation in adherence to a long-standing guideline on screening for physical abuse.

That guide, from the American Academy of Pediatrics, says that when a child younger than 2 has injuries that suggest possible physical abuse, doctors should order X-rays to look for “occult” bone fractures. Those are bone breaks that aren’t readily apparent during an exam, and may be old injuries healing on their own.

An occult bone fracture does not always need treatment, but it can help confirm suspicions of abuse, said Dr. Joanne Wood, lead researcher on the new study.

Despite that, her team found that only about half of babies with suspicious injuries were screened for hidden fractures — even among those already diagnosed with abuse.

And hospitals ranged widely in their practices. Some, for example, screened every infant with a thigh-bone fracture — an injury frequently caused by abuse; others screened none of those babies.

“Based on past research, we knew there would be variation among hospitals,” said Wood, who is based at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“But we were surprised at the magnitude of the variation,” she added.

The reasons are not clear, Wood said. At some hospitals, she speculated, staff may be unaware of the guidelines. At others, there may be no one available to do an X-ray, especially for children brought in at night.

In some cases, Wood added, a child’s injury may simply not have raised that particular doctor’s suspicions.

Whatever the reasons, there is clearly a need to do better, Wood said.

“Our study is not the first to show this,” she said. “I think we’re highlighting a need to standardize care for this vulnerable group of children.”

The findings — published online July 13 in Pediatrics — are based on records from almost 5,000 children younger than 2 who were treated at 366 U.S. hospitals. All already had been diagnosed with physical abuse or they had an injury highly suggestive of abuse: namely, a thigh-bone fracture or a traumatic head injury, such as bleeding around the brain.

Of the children already diagnosed with abuse, only 48 percent underwent X-rays to check for hidden fractures. Similarly, just over half of the children with suspicious injuries were screened.

“This study is important because it shows that we are not following the only guidelines that we have to help us do a complete and unbiased evaluation of children who present with possible physical abuse,” said Dr. Kristine Campbell, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah.

At the same time, simply having guidelines is not enough, said Campbell, who wrote an editorial published with the study.

What’s missing, she said, is evidence that following the guidelines ultimately improves children’s lives.

“Finding unexpected rib fractures in a child with abuse certainly helps to support the medical diagnosis,” Campbell said. “Unfortunately, we can’t tell you that finding the rib fracture matters in the safety and protection of the child against future abuse.”

As for why hospitals vary so widely in screening, Campbell said she suspects there are multiple reasons.

But other research, she added, has suggested that some doctors avoid making a diagnosis of abuse at all, because they doubt that referrals to child protective services will actually make children’s lives better.

Despite the uncertainty, though, Campbell said that doctors should follow the guidelines on occult bone fractures.

According to Wood, hospitals could help by making sure staff are educated on how to recognize and handle possible cases of abuse.

“Each year, over 1,500 children die from abuse in the U.S., and many more are injured,” Wood said. “There is a critical need for us to improve care for these children.”

More information

The Child Welfare Information Gateway has more on child abuse and neglect.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1K3M26s

Hot Weather Safety Essential for Elderly

SUNDAY, July 12, 2015 (HealthDay News) — As the thermometer rises, so do serious health risks for seniors and others with chronic medical problems.

The risk of potentially deadly heat-related illnesses can increase with a combination of high temperatures, certain lifestyle factors and general health, according to the U.S. National Institute on Aging.

Lifestyle factors that increase the dangers include not drinking enough fluids, lack of air conditioning, overdressing, being in overcrowded places and lack of mobility and access to transportation.

On hot and humid days, older people and those with chronic health problems should stay indoors in cooler spaces. Those without air conditioners should go to places with air conditioning, such as senior centers, shopping malls, movie theaters, libraries or community cooling centers, the agency said in a news release.

If you’re using alcohol or are substantially overweight or underweight, you’re more susceptible to heat-induced illness. Heart, lung and kidney diseases and age-related changes to the skin, such as poor blood circulation and inefficient sweat glands, also make people more vulnerable to high temperatures.

People on salt-restricted diets may be at increased risk in hot weather, too. However, don’t use salt pills before consulting with a doctor.

Taking multiple medications or taking drugs that cause reduced sweating, such as diuretics, sedatives, tranquilizers and some heart and blood pressure drugs, can also raise risk of heat illnesses. But you should continue taking prescribed medications and discuss possible problems with your doctor, the institute says.

If you suspect someone has a heat-related illness, get them into a shady, air-conditioned spot or other cool place, and have them lie down. Encourage the person to shower, bathe or sponge off with cool water if it is safe to do so. Another option is to apply a cold, wet cloth to the wrists, neck, armpits and/or groin. Offer fluids, but not beverages with alcohol or caffeine.

Call 911 if you suspect heat stroke, a life-threatening type of heat illness. Signs include a high body temperature, confusion or combativeness, strong rapid pulse, lack of sweating, dry flushed skin, feeling faint, staggering or coma.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about heat illness.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1HUWPT8

Experts Offer Diving Safety Tips

SATURDAY, July 11, 2015 (HealthDay News) — It’s tempting to dive into pools, lakes and other bodies of water when you’re trying to cool off on a hot summer day, but it can be dangerous if you don’t take proper safety precautions, experts warn.

Each year, hundreds of people in the United States are paralyzed from neck and spine injuries suffered after diving head-first into shallow lakes and pools, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), the American Spine Injury Association and the Cervical Spine Research Society.

“Everyone needs to be trained to dive safely,” AAOS spokesperson and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brett Taylor, said in a news release from the group. “Safe diving skills don’t come naturally, they have to be learned. With neck and spine injuries being the most common diving injuries, a good rule of thumb for divers is to dive feet first in unknown water.”

Never dive into shallow water, the experts advised. Before diving, always check the depth of the water and make sure it is deep enough for diving. If you’re diving from a high point, make sure the bottom of the body of water is double the distance from which you’re diving.

Never dive into above-ground pools or into water that is unclear, such as a lake or ocean, where you can’t see sand bars or objects below the surface, the experts cautioned.

Only one person at a time should stand on a diving board. Dive only off the end of the board and do not run on the board. Do not bounce more than once, because the rebound effect could knock you off your legs or throw you off balance.

After diving, immediately swim away from the area of the diving board to clear the way for the next diver.

Don’t body surf near the shore. Doing so puts you at risk for neck injuries, as well as shoulder dislocations and fractures.

More information

Safe Kids Worldwide has more about water safety.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1M20Eql

‘Fat Grafting’ Widely Used During Facelift Surgery

FRIDAY, July 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Most U.S. plastic surgeons use a procedure called “fat grafting” to enhance the effects of facelifts, a new study reports.

This technique involves transferring small amounts of fat from one part of a patient’s body to another. The fat is obtained from the belly or thighs through liposuction. The fat is then injected into specific areas of the face to provide more volume.

The researchers surveyed a random sample of members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons about their use of fat grafting for facelifts. Just over 300 members responded.

The investigators found that 85 percent of the surgeons polled reported using fat grafting during facelifts. Meanwhile, more than 70 percent of the doctors surveyed said they began using fat grafting to the face within the past decade.

Results were published in the July issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Fat was often collected from the belly and injected into the face in tiny amounts — typically no more than a few teaspoons, the researchers said in a journal news release. Fat was often used in the cheeks, which can appear sunken from aging. Fat grafting provides a more rounded appearance to the face, the researchers explained.

Fat grafting was also commonly used below the lower eyelids or in the folds between the nose and the corners of the mouth, according to the research team that was led by Dr. Sammy Sinno, a plastic surgeon at New York University.

Although some injected fat is reabsorbed by the body over time, the surgeons surveyed believed that most of the fat was still in place up to one year following a facelift. Follow-up procedures were also performed to refine the results around four to six months after the initial procedure. The doctors surveyed said their patients were satisfied with their results.

More information

The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery has more about facial fat grafting.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1HTiw47

Experts Urge Caution With Popular Painkillers After FDA Warning

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, July 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — People who regularly reach for widely used painkillers like ibuprofen and naproxen may need to think carefully before they pop those pills, heart experts say.

Mounting evidence has shown that chronic use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can raise a person’s risk of heart attack and stroke.

The evidence is strong enough that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ordered drug makers to toughen warning labels on both prescription and over-the-counter NSAIDs. The tougher warning does not include aspirin, an NSAID that has been shown to lower heart risks in some patients.

Most people who occasionally take ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or naproxen (Aleve) for infrequent headaches or pain don’t have to worry, as long as they follow the dosage directions on the bottle, said Dr. Richard Chazal, president-elect of the American College of Cardiology.

However, people who have existing heart problems or carry risk factors for heart disease need to carefully weigh the pain relief they’ll receive against a definite rise in their risk for heart attack or stroke, said Chazal, who’s also medical director of the Heart and Vascular Institute at Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, Fla.

“These are the people who have to be particularly careful about using these medications,” he noted.

Doctors are also concerned about people with chronic pain problems who use NSAIDs on a regular basis, even if they have good heart health, said Dr. Mark Creager, president of the American Heart Association and director of vascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“Even after just several weeks of use of an NSAID, the risk of heart attack or stroke goes up,” Creager said. “The risk is high with regular use, and it’s likely that the risk is greater when higher doses of these drugs are used.”

People who fall into these categories should talk with their doctor about their use of NSAIDs, to see if there are safer alternatives and to become more aware of their personal risk, experts said.

Studies estimate that a person’s relative risk of heart attack and stroke increases between 10 percent to 50 percent when they regularly take an NSAID, depending on the particular drug and the dose being used, according to the FDA.

What’s the connection? Researchers suspect that certain NSAIDs might alter the lining on the walls of blood vessels, increasing the risk of blood clots that can cause heart attacks or strokes, Chazal explained.

The current warning on NSAID packaging reads: “NSAIDs may cause an increased risk of serious heart thrombotic [clot] events, myocardial infarction [heart attack] and stroke, which can be fatal. Patients with heart disease or risk factors for heart disease may be at greater risk.”

The updated warning says: “NSAIDs cause an increased risk of serious heart thrombotic events, including myocardial infarction and stroke, which can be fatal. This risk may occur early in treatment and may increase with duration of use.”

“They’ve removed the word ‘may,’ and the warning now also says that risk starts almost immediately,” FDA spokesman Eric Pahon said.

The FDA also is warning people who regularly use NSAIDs to be careful about using other products that might contain an NSAID, such as a multi-symptom cold product.

The FDA first added a boxed warning about heart risks to NSAID labels in 2005, after Merck & Co. pulled its popular painkiller Vioxx off the market.

Vioxx was a powerful NSAID from a class known as cox-2 inhibitors. Merck took Vioxx off the market in 2004 after a landmark study led by Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Dr. Steven Nissen linked the NSAID to a raised risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Drug company Pfizer has since hired Nissen to run a government-mandated clinical trial involving another controversial NSAID called Celebrex, a cox-2 inhibitor, which is still on the market. That trial is expected to wrap up next year, after enrolling more than 24,000 patients since 2007.

Nissen said it’s natural that consumers would be a little confused by the new FDA warning, “because the statement by the FDA is deliberately vague.”

Based on other studies and the findings from the Celebrex trial, Nissen said there is a suggestion of an increased risk of heart attack and stroke with these drugs, but that “the quality of the data leading to this recommendation is not particularly high.”

Still, people who need NSAIDs to treat their pain should continue to take them after consulting with their doctors, said Nissen, chair of heart medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.

“Pain is a terrible burden to bear. For people who have severe arthritis, we want people to understand they can take the drugs,” Nissen said. “There’s an increased risk, and they need to understand that, but we don’t want them to suffer the burden of pain with no relief.”

Chazal agreed that some people will need to continue using NSAIDs, but said that they still should work with their doctors to explore alternative medications and therapies.

People who do not have an affliction would do well to consider alternatives to NSAIDs, Chazal added. For example, people who take ibuprofen or naproxen to ease their aches following a strenuous workout should think instead about soaking in a hot tub or performing some flexibility exercises before or after they exercise.

“Getting in the habit of simply reaching for an NSAID without thinking about it is probably not in our best interest,” he said.

Finally, people who regularly use NSAIDs should understand that their baseline risk for heart disease also plays a factor in whether they should use these drugs, Creager said.

“NSAIDs will increase risk of heart attack, but when you balance benefit and risk you need to know what your starting risk is,” he said. “For example, risk in an older person or a person who already has had a heart attack is going to be greater than risk in a younger person. Understand where on that scale you sit.”

More information

To learn more about the new NSAID warning, visit the Food and Drug Administration.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1IPP4wA

Alcohol, Pot Combo Impairs Driving More Than Either Alone

FRIDAY, July 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Drinking alcohol and smoking pot at the same time hampers driving skills more than consuming one alone does, a new study shows.

However, while the combined impact leads to greater behind-the-wheel impairment, it didn’t double the effect.

The findings stem from a new investigation that looked at driver performance along a virtual roadway after drinking alcohol, smoking pot or both.

“What we saw was an additive effect, not a synergistic effect, when we put them together,” study author Tim Brown, an associate research scientist who works with the University of Iowa’s National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS), said in a news release. “You get what you expect if you take alcohol and cannabis and merge them together.”

Brown and his colleagues reported their findings recently in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Their work was sponsored by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse and the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The team noted that their work was prompted by recent statistics that illustrate that while drunk driving has plummeted by as much as a third since 2007, so-called “drugged driving” is on the rise.

For example, they pointed to a 2014 NHTSA survey that found that between 2007 and 2014 the number of drivers found to have pot in their system had grown by roughly 50 percent.

This finding might reflect the fact that marijuana has been made legal in more parts of the country. Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states and Washington D.C., and recreational marijuana is now legal in five states, the researchers said.

“Alcohol is the most common drug present in the system in roadside stops by police; cannabis is the next most common, and cannabis is often paired with alcohol below the legal limits,” Brown noted. “So the questions are: ‘Is alcohol an issue? Is cannabis an issue?’ We know alcohol is an issue, but is cannabis an issue or is cannabis an issue when paired with alcohol? We tried to find out.”

The team’s simulated driving sessions involving 13 men and five women (between the ages of 21 and 37) that lasted between 35 and 45 minutes each.

Apart from assessing the combined effect of both drugs when taken together, the team noted that alcohol on its own seems to lead to greater driving impairment than smoking pot on its own.

In fact, drunk drivers were found to have impaired driving skills on all three principal measures: weaving within a lane, leaving the lane entirely and the speed of weaving, the researchers found.

By contrast, the study found that those solely under the influence of vaporized marijuana displayed impairment only in terms of increased weaving within a lane.

More information

For more on marijuana and driving, go to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1HqDsKU

Straight Talk About Poison Ivy

FRIDAY, July 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Reports that poison ivy has gotten bigger, stronger or more prevalent are misleading, one dermatologist says.

“I think people are just out more, and so they’re coming into contact with it more,” Dr. David Adams, a dermatologist at Penn State Hershey Hospital, said in a hospital news release.

Up to 75 percent of people will develop the itchy red rash if exposed to the urushiol oil inside the plant’s leaves, stem and roots.

The idea that you can get the rash by just brushing against the leaves of a poison ivy plant is a common misconception, Adams noted. “You have to actually break the leaves, stem or root to get the urushiol oil on you,” he said. Poison ivy is also not usually passed from one person to another.

Mild cases can often be treated with over-the-counter cortisone cream or calamine lotion, but more serious reactions may need prescription creams or a two-to-three-week round of oral steroids.

Adams said a six-day treatment often prescribed may not be enough. “It always seems to rebound after that, so it seems that isn’t long enough,” he said.

Adams said he encounters cases even during the winter. “What happens is that people buy a live Christmas tree, and there are dead vines on it that they rip off, not knowing what they are,” Adams explained. “The urushiol oil inside is still viable.”

The oil can linger on inanimate objects for a long time. Adams advised people to wash their clothes and clean gardening tools thoroughly after use.

Burning debris and yard trimmings can also make the oil present in the air. People who breathe it in can develop a reaction on their face, causing it to swell and itch. “The most common method, though, is that someone is pulling out weeds and then they rub an eyelid or something,” Adams noted.

Poison ivy may not show up right away. The rash and irritation typically develop within seven to 10 days. Those who have had poison ivy before may experience symptoms even sooner.

The best way to avoid the misery, Adams advised, is to avoid the plant and its oil and mind the old saying: “Leaves of three, let it be.”

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine provides more information on poison ivy.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1fuIQXO

For Those With Social Anxiety, Acts of Kindness May Be Therapeutic

FRIDAY, July 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — People with social anxiety who perform good deeds may have less trouble relaxing and interacting with others, new research finds.

These acts of kindness can boost feelings of happiness and foster positive views of the world. Over time, deeds that promote positive interactions may enable people with this disorder to socialize more easily, the Canadian researchers said.

“Acts of kindness may help to counter negative social expectations by promoting more positive perceptions and expectations of a person’s social environment,” study co-author Jennifer Trew, of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, said in a journal news release. “It helps to reduce their levels of social anxiety and, in turn, makes them less likely to want to avoid social situations.”

Social anxiety disorder causes people to feel threatened or anxious about mingling with others. It’s more than just being shy. The disorder may make people feel so uncomfortable that they avoid socializing entirely to avoid angst or the possible embarrassment.

The four-week study involved 115 undergraduate students with high levels of social anxiety. The students were randomly divided into three groups. The first group was told to perform acts of kindness, such as doing a roommate’s dishes, mowing a neighbor’s lawn, or donating to a charity. The second group was exposed social interactions, but instructed to not engage in good deeds. The third group recorded what happened daily but these participants were not give any specific instructions on how to interact with others.

The study revealed the group that engaged in acts of kindness had the greatest reduction in their desire to avoid social interactions. This was especially true during the first part of the intervention, the study found.

The researchers concluded good deeds are a valuable tool to help people with social anxiety interact with others more easily by easing anxiety and fears of possible rejection.

Treatment strategies that involve doing good deeds can improve quality of life for people with social anxiety, the study published recently in the journal Motivation and Emotion concluded.

“An intervention using this technique may work especially well early on while participants anticipate positive reactions from others in response to their kindness,” study co-author Lynn Alden, of the University of British Columbia, in a journal news release.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health provides more information on social anxiety disorder.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1HqDse1