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Some sufferers of psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia may have a treatable immune disorder, research suggests. In a nationwide study, scientists at the University of Oxford found up to one in 11 cases of psychosis may involve a condition where antibodies attack the brain. The team suggested that all patients displaying signs of psychosis for the first time should be screened for the antibodies to see if alternative treatments may be possible. The study, published in The Lancet, was led by...

A large study has found that body mass index, waist circumference and diabetes are all associated with an increased risk for liver cancer. Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer, and its incidence has tripled since the mid-1970s in the United States. For the study, in Cancer Research, researchers pooled data from 14 prospective studies with more than 1.5 million participants. After controlling for age, sex, alcohol use, smoking and race, they found that being overweight increased the relat...

Treating pregnant women for depression may benefit not just themselves but their babies as well. A study, in the May issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, included 7,267 pregnant women, of whom 831 had symptoms of depression. After controlling for maternal age, race, income, body mass index and other health and behavioral characteristics, the researchers found that depressive symptoms were associated with a 27 percent increased relative risk of preterm birth (less than 37 weeks of gestation), an...

Eating potatoes four or more times a week may increase the risk for high blood pressure, a large new study has found. Researchers pooled results from three observational studies involving 187,453 men and women followed for more than 25 years. The participants returned health and diet questionnaires every two years, including whether a doctor had diagnosed hypertension. The study is in BMJ. After controlling for body mass index, physical activity, smoking and other factors, they found that compa...

The number of Americans having strokes and the number dying following strokes decreased over the past 20 years, according to a new study. The declines in strokes and improvements in survival were similar between blacks, whites, men and women, according to the researchers. “Stroke is still the fourth leading cause of death and the leading cause of disability in the U.S. but we’re doing better,” said Dr. Josef Coresh, the study’s senior author from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of P...