您现在的位置: Language Tips> Audio & Video> Special Speed News  
   
 





 
New findings on children and mental illness
[ 2008-09-17 09:52 ]

 

Download

This the VOA Special English Health Report.

People who are schizophrenic sometimes hear voices or see things that are not real. They might believe other people want to hurt them. They can become fearful and socially withdrawn.

Schizophrenia is explained on the National Institute of Mental Health Web site as a brain disorder that is severe and disabling. It is also chronic, meaning long term.

The disorder usually appears in males in their late teens or early twenties and in females in their twenties or thirties. Experts say it rarely appears in children, but when it does, it generally affects them more severely than adults.

Children with schizophrenia are often treated with "second-generation" antipsychotic drugs. But do these costly newer drugs work better than older ones that cost less? The National Institute of Mental Health recently paid for a study by four universities in the United States. The research teams found that the answer was no.

They studied one hundred nineteen people between the ages of eight and nineteen. The patients were observed over an eight-week period. Some received risperidone or olanzapine, two newer drugs. Others received a first-generation antipsychotic drug, molindone.

The researchers found that all of the patients experienced about the same improvement. But the risperidone and olanzapine caused serious weight gain.

In fact, the institute cancelled the olanzapine research because the patients who took it gained an average of almost six kilograms. The concern was that the weight gain could lead to diabetes.

The study appeared in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Past studies have shown that children born to older fathers have a higher risk of schizophrenia as well as autism. Now, scientists are finding evidence of a similar link for bipolar disorder. This disorder is marked by periods of extremes in mood and behavior. It was formerly called manic depression.

A new study in Sweden involved more than thirteen thousand patients with bipolar disorder. Researchers compared them to similar people of the same age and sex who did not have the disorder.

The study found that fathers fifty-five and older were one and a third times more likely to have a bipolar child than fathers twenty to twenty-four. The scientists say the reason could be that older sperm is more likely to cause genetic abnormalities. The findings are in this month's Archives of General Psychiatry.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.

schizophrenia:精神分裂症

(Source: VOA 英语英语点津姗姗编辑)

 
英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883631联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。
相关文章 Related Story
 
 
 
本频道最新推荐
 
Walking in the US first lady's shoes
“准确无误”如何表达
英国新晋超女苏珊大妈改头换面
猪流感 swine flu
你有lottery mentality吗
翻吧推荐
 
论坛热贴
 
别乱扔垃圾。怎么译这个乱字呀?
橘子,橙子用英文怎么区分?
看Gossip Girl学英语
端午节怎么翻译?
母亲,您在天堂还好吗?