All Articles

• Many Alzheimer’s patients get drugs with opposing effects

  Many people taking common Alzheimer’s disease medications—cholinesterase inhibitors—are given medications with anticholinergic properties, which oppose their effects. Group Health Research Institute scientists investigated how often that happens and reported on the consequences in an “Early View” study e-published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
• Yearly mammograms? Expect a ‘false positive’ each decade

  In 10 years of annual mammograms, more than half of women without cancer will be called back at least once for more testing. And about one in 12 will be referred for a biopsy, according to a study of national Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium data in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
• Yoga eases back pain in largest U.S. yoga study to date

  Yoga classes were linked to better back-related function and diminished symptoms from chronic low back pain in the largest U.S. randomized controlled trial of yoga to date.
• Opioids linked to higher risk of pneumonia in older adults

  Opioids—a class of medicines commonly given for pain—were associated with a higher risk of pneumonia in a study of 3,061 adults, aged 65 to 94, e-published in advance of publication in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study from researchers at Group Health Research Institute and the University of Washington (UW) also found that benzodiazepines, which are drugs generally given for insomnia and anxiety, did not affect pneumonia risk.
• Can new approaches to talking about vaccines boost childhood immunization rates?

  Washington’s highest-in-the-nation immunization exemption rate may be inviting a full-blown outbreak of vaccine-preventable disease.
• Group Health establishes major initiative to prevent opioid abuse and overdose

  A report in the August 2011 issue of Health Affairs describes a major initiative at Group Health to make opioid prescribing safer while improving care for patients with chronic pain. Health Affairs is the nation’s premier health policy journal, and its August issue focuses on substance abuse.
• In study, video helps people weigh bariatric surgery pros, cons

  First randomized trial of shared decision making for weight-loss surgery.