Patients Get the Message

Patients recover more quickly from …. surgery when ….tapes with hypnotic suggestions are played to them on …. operating table, ….doctors at ….St Thomas's Hospital, London have found. While under ….anaesthetic, they were told: you will not feel sick. You will not-have any pain.' Those given such suggestions had fewer complications than others after ….surgery and left hospital sooner.

…. experiment was set up at St Thomas's after ….doctors found ….patients could sometimes recall ….things said during …..operations. In …. study at another hospital, many patients who were told during …. operation that they should touch their ears at …. later interview with …. doctor did so. ….. experiment at St Thomas's was conducted on 19 women having …. hysterectomy operation. …. women, who had consented to …. experiment, were played …. 12-minute recording repeated six times. Most of …. tape gave details of …. normal procedures following …. operation and how to cope with them. It said, for example: 'How quickly you recover from your operation depends upon you - …. more you relax, …. more comfortable you will be.

This was followed by ….two minutes of directly telling …. patient she would feel well after …. operation. Then came …. minute of third-person suggestions - for example: …. operation seems to be going very well and the patient is fine.

…. control group of patients was played ….blank tapes. ….Patients who received …. suggestions were discharged from ….hospital 1.3 days earlier on ….average. If this could be achieved as …. routine, …. health service could save millions of pounds …. year. Nurses rated …. patients, and almost all those who had been given ….suggestions did better than expected. They suffered from less fever and had …few stomach and bowel disturbances, which are common following …. abdominal operation.

The Independent (BrE)

Alzheimer’s telltale protein

As if ….. creeping forgetfulness it causes were not horrible enough, Alzheimer's disease carries …. extra burden: …. person must be dead before doctors can identify …. disorder with absolute certainty. …. discovery announced last week, however, could result in …. simple and accurate skin test for ….living patients. …. finding may also lead to ….new treatment for …. incurable illness believed to afflict up to 4 million Americans.

Just how Alzheimer's ravages …. brain isn't understood, but …. protein molecule is thought to be involved. This protein, which pathologists look for in ….brain tissue after …. suspected Alzheimer's sufferer has died, is also present in easily accessible skin cells, …. new research indicates. Dr Dennis Selkoe and colleagues at …. Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found …. protein in the skin of 8 out of 11 people with Alzheimer's disease who had died. Selkoe's test must be confirmed by other laboratories and made easy to do on …. large scale. But he is optimistic that …. reliable skin test may be only two or three years away.

…. finding suggests …. fresh strategy for attacking …. disease. Scientists have been trying to perfect drugs "capable of repairing …. damage Alzheimer's does to …. brain. On …. theory that …. protein causes …. disorder by traveling from other tissues to …. brain, ….researchers may now seek to devise drugs that would block …. protein before it gets there.

US News and World Report (AmE)