September

According to new Canadian research, there is insufficient evidence to show that the various short questionnaires physicians use to ask about symptoms of depression in children and adolescents accurately screen 6- to 18-year-olds for the disease. Researchers believe this calls into question the use of these assessment tools for this group and raises worries about possible misdiagnosis of the disease in this age range.

A new technology that analyzes a person’s natural speech to detect and monitor Alzheimer disease and other cognitive disorders won the AGE-WELL Pitch Competition: Technology to Support People with Dementia. The tablet-based assessment tool records short samples of a person’s speech as they describe a picture on the screen and extracts hundreds of variables from the samples.

Researchers at UBC and the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) in Switzerland have created a microneedle drug-monitoring system that could one day replace blood draws and improve patient comfort. The system consists of a small thin patch that is pressed against a patient’s arm during medical treatment and measures drugs in the bloodstream painlessly without drawing any blood. The tiny needle-like projection, less than 0.5 mm long, resembles a hollow cone and doesn’t pierce the skin like a standard hypodermic needle.

UBC research shows that about 50% of British Columbians with depression are not receiving the basic level of care, and authors say the findings highlight the challenges of accessing mental health services across Canada.

According to a study by McGill University researchers, the inability to remember details that begins in early midlife (the 40s) may be the result of a change in what information the brain focuses on during memory formation and retrieval, rather than a decline in brain function.