A. Schizophrenia Patients Off Meds Leads to Higher Medical Costs

Narrator: This is Science Today. Schizophrenia, which is associated with delusions and hallucinations, is one of the most severe forms of mental illness. And while there are effective drugs to treat the disease, psychiatrist Dilip Jeste of the University of California, San Diego, says only 41 percent of schizophrenia patients regularly take their antipsychotic medications.

Jeste: We looked at not only how common the non-adherence was, but also what are the risk factors associated with it and what are the consequences, including the effects of cost of care.

Narrator: Not only does the cost of psychiatric hospitalization increase, but Jeste says medical hospitalization is much more common in patients who stop taking their medication.

Jeste: What is needed is really attention to the psychosocial resources. Without that, just having the medications is not going to work. The medications are useful, but what good they are if patients don’t take them. So really what is needed is a broad based, psychosocially based intervention system.

Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.

B. Understanding Severe Vision Loss in the Elderly

Narrator: This is Science Today. Age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, affects about one in three elderly people in the United States. According to ophthalmologist Jacque Duncan of the University of California, San Francisco, aside from age, other risk factors include smoking, hypertension and having lighter colored eyes.

Duncan: Fortunately, ninety percent of the people with the disease won’t end up losing vision due to it, however because it is so common, one in ten people who have it will develop new blood vessels under the retina, which is known as the wet form of AMD.

Narrator: The wet form of the disease is much more much severe and is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in older people. Duncan led a study that found that anti-cholesterol medications known as statins and aspirin may protect against severe vision loss in the elderly.

Duncan: The medicines that we’re talking about are relatively safe, but they’re not without side effects, so I’m not telling people to go take them right now by any means. I think it’s an important observation and I think it warrants further study.

Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.

C. Buckyball, Anyone? Studying Soccer Ball-Shaped Molecules

Narrator: This is Science Today. A buckyball is a soccer ball-shaped molecule made up of sixty carbon atoms that are arranged in a series of interlocking hexagons and pentagons. Mike Crommie, a staff scientist in the Material Science Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, says there’s a whole class of molecules that have similar kinds of shapes.

Crommie: People often refer to them as Fullerenes and there are other related molecules called nanotubes. They were discovered within the last twenty years and people are very interested in them because they’re very flexible, we can create new kinds of structures with them and they have very interesting electronic and even magnetic properties that allow us to create new kinds of materials that did not exist before.

Narrator: Crommie is particularly interested in the buckyballs because one can change their electronic properties.

Crommie: Why would one even be interested in these molecular structures in the first place? Because in some sense, what we’re doing is we’re understanding how they behave and how we can change them and control them with an eye toward future applications.

Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.

D. What Expectant Parents Should Know about Prenatal Ultrasound

Narrator: This is Science Today. For many expectant parents, having a prenatal ultrasound means getting an exciting first peek at their baby, but as a diagnostic test, ultrasounds are extremely important for predicting birth outcomes and risks. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, explains.

Smith-Bindman: I think patients have started to look at ultrasound in a way that it's just a fun test that they have to see a picture of their baby and I'm very sympathetic with that view of ultrasound. But it's really a medical test and really has a very important medical role for predicting who's really at greatest risk.

Narrator: Smith-Bindman suggests getting an ultrasound as early as 15 weeks gestation, instead of the routinely recommended 20 weeks, so that babies in highest-risk groups can be identified earlier.

Smith-Bindman: If we could identify those fetuses who are greatest risk, we can then have more success in trying to develop interventions that can help them.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.

E. Biosignatures: The Future of Disease Detection?

Narrator: This is Science Today. Imagine being able to know you were going to get sick even before the onset of symptoms? That kind of early intervention is the ultimate hope and goal of a new university-laboratory consortium led by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Project co-leader Ken Turteltaub says the first phase is to study whether diseases can be detected in humans through molecular signatures.

Turteltaub: If we could take a blood sample or you could prick your finger and get a sense of whether you are actually coming down with something or not. 245 From a medical person’s standpoint, to be able to tell if you are coming down with something bacterial or viral has a big impact on what could be done to treat you.

Narrator: Turteltaub explains that the group has a long-term vision.

Turteltaub: It involves, in the early stages, applied science – how do we get diagnostics and assays in place to be able to do the ‘before you’re sick’ detection. And then the long term is a much more basic science thing – how do we understand the underlying biochemistry that’s going on that causes those changes that we’re seeing.

Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.