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Does Intercessory Prayer For Sick People Actually Help Heal Them?
Health and religion have always been intertwined, most obviously through prayer on behalf of the sick. Does intercessory prayer for sick people actually help heal them? For thousands of years some people have believed so. But new Brandeis University research in the Journal of Religion this month shows that over the last four decades, medical studies of intercessory prayer - the prayer of strangers at a distance - actually say more about the scientists conducting the studies than about the power of prayer to heal.

ImmunoGen Announces Encouraging New Clinical Data With The Company's IMGN901 Compound In The Treatment Of Small-Cell Lung Cancer
ImmunoGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMGN), a biopharmaceutical company that develops targeted anticancer therapeutics using its Targeted Antibody Payload (TAP) technology, today announced the presentation of encouraging initial efficacy, safety and tolerability clinical data with its IMGN901 product candidate in the treatment of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). In two early-stage clinical trials that enrolled patients whose SCLC had recurred following treatment with standard chemotherapies, IMGN901 administration achieved notable tumor shrinkage and/or sustained stable disease. The compound also demonstrated encouraging activity against other CD56-expressing (CD56+) solid tumors. These clinical data are being presented at the 13th World Conference on Lung Cancer taking place in San Francisco, CA, from July 31 to Aug. 4, 2009.
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Caregivers May Benefit From Adult Day Care
Caring for an elderly family member can be stressful and can pose health threats to caregivers. Steven Zarit, professor and head, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State, received a $3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to study the effects of caregiving on familial caregivers. He will look at people who care for family members with dementia and how adult day care impacts the stress levels of all individuals involved.
Sexual Health

The Evolution Of Migraine From Episodic Headache To Chronic Disorder

Patients living with migraine have strong reason for new optimism concerning a positive future. Two review articles and an accompanying editorial, "The Future of Migraine: Beyond Just Another Pill," in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, are the basis for an ironic premise. "Migraine is a potentially chronic, progressive disease that substantially affects patients, families, workplaces, and society," according to the editorial written by Roger Cady, M.D., of the Headache Care Center in Springfield, Mo. "Ironically, this is the springboard for renewed optimism of a more positive future for patients living with migraine." Traditionally, Dr. Cady explains, migraine has been considered a pain disorder involving separate or even sporadic episodes. Now, the condition is defined as an all-encompassing and progressive disease that negatively affects all aspects of an individual"s life. Migraine can erode quality of life during what should be a person"s most productive years, according to Dr. Cady. Because migraine patients" quality of life has not improved at a pace with medical advances, research is addressing the overall severity and potential progressive nature of migraine, especially migraine episodes as a forerunner of chronic migraine. According to the three articles, these new insights and understandings are requiring professionals to explore well beyond traditional migraine management. "Understanding migraine as a potentially chronic disease mandates a collaborative health care model with patients and health care professionals working in a partnership toward common therapeutic goals," writes Dr. Cady, specifically intervention and prevention. Physicians and patients must be encouraged to be partners, he says, and evaluation must go far beyond the physician just asking, "How are your migraines?" The models must include an invitation to comprehend and address all migraine-related health issues facing patients, Dr. Cady writes. In addition, understanding the evolutionary "stages" of migraine from sporadic to persistent offers an opportunity to develop new therapies that individualize and personalize care. In the future, successful management of migraine will ideally be measured not by stopping an attack but by overall disease management and prevention, according to the researchers. This new understanding of migraine as a chronic disease offers many challenges and rewards, according to Dr. Cady. "Today, the focus of care is rapidly changing from the event of the migraine to the patient with migraine," he notes. These changes present great promise for patients and health care professionals alike, representing assurances of a better future for patients with migraine, concludes Dr. Cady. John Murphy Mayo Clinic


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