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Antiabortion Group's National Convention Focuses On 'Common Ground' In Abortion-Rights Debate
The National Right to Life Committee last week held its national convention in Charlotte, N.C., attracting as many as 1,300 antiabortion-rights advocates from around the U.S., according to event organizers, the Charlotte Observer reports. According to the Observer, a large part of the convention focused on President Obama"s appeal for "common ground" in the abortion-rights debate, with many participants arguing there is not much in common to be found between abortion-rights supporters and opponents.NRLC Political Director Karen Cross said that Obama is "the most pro-abortion president" in U.S. history, telling convention delegates, "Look at the devastation brought by the first 100 days" of his administration. Cross was referring to Obama"s decisions to ease restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, lift the "global gag" rule and his intentions to repeal the Bush administration"s provider "conscience" rule.Although Obama has sought to achieve common ground on abortion by promoting adoption and methods of preventing unintended pregnancies, his "view of common ground is not common ground at all" for "people with very strong pro-life positions," John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, said. Green said that the "positive news is abortion is not a priority for many Americans." Green said that results from a recent a Pew Research Center poll could indicate that "pro-life constituencies are becoming more vocal and more strident precisely because there"s a president with more pro-choice sympathies." Similarly, a May Gallup poll found that 51% of U.S. residents consider themselves "pro-life," compared with 42% who call themselves "pro-choice." The poll was the first time Gallup found that more people identified themselves as "pro-life."Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said that the Gallup poll "doesn"t square" with the election of Obama and abortion-rights majorities in both chambers of Congress. She said, "Americans want a change in the tone of the debate and that begins with common ground on birth control and sex education." She added, "As long as right-to-life refuses to support better access to contraception, they will continue to be outside the mainstream values of this country" (Morrill, Charlotte Observer, 6/20).
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Identification Of Brain Difference In Psychopaths
Professor Declan Murphy and colleagues Dr Michael Craig and Dr Marco Catani from the Institute of Psychiatry at King"s College London have found differences in the brain which may provide a biological explanation for psychopathy. The results of their study are outlined in the paper "Altered connections on the road to psychopathy", published in Molecular Psychiatry.
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Council Recognises Champions Of Pharmacy
Two pharmacists, and one non-pharmacist, have been recognised by the Council of the Royal
Endocrinology

Many People Can Cope With Knowing They Have Alzheimer's Risk

Many people who discover that they have inherited a higher risk of developing Alzheimer"s can cope with the news, especially if they receive the it through genetic counseling: they may experience depression or anxiety at first, but it does not last long, according to a new study from the US. The study was the work of co-author Scott Roberts, now a researcher at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor, and colleagues, and is published in the New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM. Roberts did the research while he was at Boston University. He is also co-principal investigator on the Risk Evaluation and Education for Alzheimer"s Disease (REVEAL) study, a series of randomized clinical trials that are looking at the impact of a genetic susceptibility testing program for adult children of people with Alzheimer"s. The NEJM study addresses a debate that has been going on for some time, about whether being told they have an inherited predisposition to Alzheimer"s disease causes psychological harm to people, especially if there is a history of it in the family. People with a family history of Alzheimer"s disease are already at higher risk. But the risk is even higher if they also carry a certain variant of the APOE gene (Apolipoprotein E). Having a parent with Alzheimer"s is thought to increase one"s risk of developing the disease by age 85 to between 30 and 35 per cent, compared with a general population risk of 10 to 15 per cent, said the authors. If you also carry the APOE variant the risk is 50 per cent. For the study Roberts and colleagues recruited 162 participants with at least one parent who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer"s disease. The participants first took part in an education session about Alzheimer"s and were then offered a genetic test that looked for presence of the APOE variant that conferred higher risk of Alzheimer"s. The participants that agreed to have the test were given their results by trained genetic counselors. The researchers then followed them for about 12 months and assessed the psychological impact of the revelation. The participants completed tests for depression, anxiety and test-related distress before disclosure, and then 6 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months after. The results showed that for the participants who were told they had the risk-increasing gene, the test-related distress level was slightly higher at the 6 week point, but not at the 6 month or 12 month point. Anxiety and depression levels remained stable, said Roberts, who told the press that while some people might say they were thinking a lot about the test result, "it didn"t translate into long-term depression or anxiety". However, the results did show that: "Persons with high levels of emotional distress before undergoing genetic testing were more likely to have emotional difficulties after disclosure," wrote the authors. "The findings show if you do (disclose this genetic information) genetic counseling may be an important component to ensure that most people do not respond with significant distress," said Roberts. Genetic counseling puts the test results in context and helps people understand the meaning and limits of the results, he added, citing the example of a person with a 55 per cent lifetime risk being reminded that this also meant there was a 45 per cent risk that they would not get the disease. The study"s results are timely because as more and more private firms offer genetic testing, it raises the question of whether people should know about genetic risks outside of a clinical context. Roberts said some might argue that it is "paternalistic" to decide for others what they can and cannot know about their own genes. He said that after the initial education session, only 20 per cent of the participants refused to go ahead with the test, which meant the majority wanted to know. "I think most adult children of Alzheimer"s patients would favor the right to at least have the choice," said Roberts. "Disclosure of APOE Genotype for Risk of Alzheimer"s Disease." Green, Robert C., Roberts, J. Scott, Cupples, L. Adrienne, Relkin, Norman R., Whitehouse, Peter J., Brown, Tamsen, Eckert, Susan LaRusse, Butson, Melissa, Sadovnick, A. Dessa, Quaid, Kimberly A., Chen, Clara, Cook-Deegan, Robert, Farrer, Lindsay A., the REVEAL Study Group. NEJM, Volume 361:245-254, Number 3, July 16, 2009. s: Univesrity of Michigan. Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today


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