EpinewS   Archive

 

 

                                                  

7th April 2001 is World Health Day

World Health Day is an annual event of the World Health Organization (WHO). A new theme is selected each year to highlight public health issues of world-wide concern. This year, for the purposes of the Day, WHO plans to highlight the key concerns of care and exclusion as demonstrated by a limited number of disorders: depressive disorders, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, alcohol dependence, epilepsy and mental retardation.

Slogan : "Mental Health: Stop exclusion – Dare to care" incorporates two universal messages:

1.More care, better care, access to care: what is needed in your Region?

2. Less exclusions, less discrimination will help those afflicted and their families

to lead better and more productive lives and to encourage those in needs to seek treatment. 

                         

BEA 2 Apr 2001

More work to be done on music with longer listening times to discover the key ingredient in the “Mozart Effect”

The possible health benefits of the music of Mozart have been assessed in the April Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine  by Professor John Jenkins who calls for more work to be done to discover exactly what musical criteria have to be present for the “Mozart effect” to take place.More recent work with epilepsy patients has indicated “a more impressive indication of a Mozart effect”. Sonata K448, was once again played to participants. Most but not all showed a decrease in their epileptiform activity - the patterns in the brain that produce epileptic seizures. Computer analysis showed that the music of Mozart and Bach shared a common factor, a high degree of ‘long-term periodicity' (wave forms repeated regularly, but not very close together, throughout the piece of music). By contrast, music which had no effect on epileptic seizures did not have this factor. Professor Jenkins concludes that any health benefits of listening to music are “not specific to Mozart’s compositions”, and calls for more research to be done on music other than K448, with longer listening times. [ Related: "Mozart effect" on epileptiform activity]

Mozart's Sonata in D Major, K448  1.Andante2.Allegro con spirito 3.Allegro molto ; Other Mozart's midis

 

BEA 2 Apr 2001

Research into weight gain may help overcome side effects of AEDs

A team from Denver’s Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (ERI) reported new evidence that implicates a low level of a certain hormone as an important factor in obesity."Despite the perception in both the scientific community and the lay public that the only cause of obesity is either appetite or lack of exercise, this new study provides us with more information about how and why we do or do not store fat in our bodies. People with Down syndrome, for example, have difficulty controlling their weight and many medications commonly used to treat epilepsy and various forms of depression often lead to unwanted weight gain. We hope that this finding will be useful for weight control in these conditions as well."