Medical Bulletin 13/September/2023

Here are the top medical news of the day:

Using painkillers alongside hormonal contraception increases risk of blood clot in women, shows large study

A large Danish study published by The BMJ recently found that women who use non-steroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers alongside hormonal contraception appear to be at a small increased risk of blood clots known as venous thromboembolism (VTE). The risk was greater in women using combined oral contraceptives containing third or fourth-generation progestins, but smaller in women using progestin-only tablets, implants, and coils, alongside the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) ibuprofen, diclofenac, and naproxen.

Reference: BMJ 2023;382:e074450

Study shows alarming global statistic 1 in 3 men harbors genital human papillomavirus

The findings from a recent study published in The Lancet Global Health showed that almost one in three men worldwide are infected with at least one genital HPV type and around one in five men are infected with one or more HR-HPV types. The findings also show that HPV prevalence is high in men over the age of 15 years and support that sexually active men, regardless of age, are an important reservoir of HPV genital infection.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted viral infection worldwide, and previous research has shown that most sexually active men and women will acquire at least one genital HPV infection during their lives. There are more than 200 HPV types that can be transmitted sexually, and at least 12 types are oncogenic. The majority of HPV infections in men and women are asymptomatic, but they can lead to long-term sequelae and mortality.

Reference: Laia Bruni, Ginesa Albero, Jane Rowley, Laia Alemany, Marc Arbyn, Anna R Giuliano, Lauri E Markowitz, Nathalie Broutet, Melanie Taylor, Global and regional estimates of genital human papillomavirus prevalence among men: a systematic review and meta-analysis, The Lancet Global Health, (https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00305-4) 

Yet another study reaffirms direct link between depression and type 2 diabetes development

A causal positive association from depression to type 2 diabetes, with evidence of mediation by BMI was found in a recent study published in Diabetes Care Journal, a peer-reviewed medical journal by the American Diabetes Association. The researchers also performed a multiphenotype GWAS (MP-GWAS) of the two diseases, highlighting seven shared loci that target nearby genes in several target tissues.

Type 2 diabetes is a disease characterized by chronic hyperglycemia, while depression is its frequent comorbidity, potentially because of shared risk factors. It has been shown that depression, even at subclinical levels, increases the risk of incident type 2 diabetes by 25–60%. whereas others have shown that type 2 diabetes increases the risk of depression by 40–60%.

Reference: Jared G. Maina, Zhanna Balkhiyarova, Arie Nouwen, Igor Pupko, Anna Ulrich, Mathilde Boissel, Amélie Bonnefond, Philippe Froguel, Amna Khamis, Inga Prokopenko, Marika Kaakinen; Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization and Multiphenotype GWAS Show Causality and Shared Pathophysiology Between Depression and Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Care 1 September 2023; 46 (9): 1707–1714. (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc22-2373)

Criticism from parents hits harder on depressed teens, research reveals

A recent study published in Psychological Medicine showed that adolescents with depression might be especially attentive to parental criticism, as indexed by increased subgenual anterior cingulate cortex or sgACC and hippocampus activity and memorize this criticism more. Together with lower positive impact of praise, these findings suggest that cognitive biases in adolescent depression may affect how parental feedback is processed, and may be fed into their self-views.

Reference: Van Houtum, L., Wever, M., Van Schie, C., Janssen, L., Wentholt, W., Tollenaar, M., . . . Elzinga, B. (2023). Sticky criticism? Affective and neural responses to parental criticism and praise in adolescents with depression. Psychological Medicine, 1-10. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291723002131