VA Research Currents archive
In This Issue
Spring 2014
PDF version
Ongoing research
Science is catching up with what many war Veterans have long sensed: Emotional trauma isn't about only the mind. It also affects the body–especially the heart
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A landmark trial to determine the long-term effectiveness of drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes will involve nine VA centers, along with 37 other clinical sites
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For Texas-based researcher Dr. Mary Jo Pugh, the study of "complex comorbidity clusters" is personal...
Key findings
"Sometimes I hear it in both ears, sometimes only in one ear. Sometimes it seems to be right in the middle of my head. It's not predictable."
John Emmons, 67, a retired police officer in Oregon who served as an Army medic in Vietnam, is talking about the tinnitus he has lived with for the past three decades. It keeps him up many a night, and during the day can be a "severe distraction"
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Exercising on a treadmill may prevent blindness–at least in mice. That's the upshot of a lab study by vision researchers at the Atlanta VA Medical Center and Emory University
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VA and university researchers found the popular video calling tool Skype to be an effective way to deliver psychotherapy to homebound older adults with depression. In fact, the approach was even more effective than in-home visits from a therapist
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Impacts on care
Dr. Amos Bailey knows something about death. As an oncologist, he began referring patients to home hospice shortly after it became widely available in the late 1980s. The experience changed his outlook on care for the dying...
Journal scan
Visitors to a positive psychology website who were given simple activities to do over six weeks—such as writing about three "good things" each day in a journal—reported less physical pain for up to six months after the study...
VA Research Over Time
May is National Mediterranean Diet Month, a time to focus attention on a way of eating that has consistently been shown to help reduce the risk of heart disease and other chronic ailments. VA researcher Dr. Scott Grundy is among many in VA who have studied the topic
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Program news
VA's Million Veteran Program (MVP) enrolled its 250,000th volunteer research participant in early March. A Korean War Veteran at the VA Loma Linda (Calif.) Healthcare System was the 250,000th person to sign up for the research program
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