A. Age is an Important Factor When Treating Pain

Narrator: This is Science Today. When it comes to treating patients suffering from severe, chronic pain, age is a very important factor. Dr. Pamela Pierce Palmer, director of the University of California, San Francisco Pain Management Center, found that older patients can safely and effectively be treated with opioid pain medications with little risk of seeking ever-increasing doses. But younger patients were found to want to rapidly up their doses.

Palmer: When I started this study, my main goal was to point out the problem of giving opiates to young people because what we found was there was no long-term benefit in pain relief, even though they escalated sometimes to well over half a gram a day of opiates.

Narrator: Palmer then discovered that elderly patients in pain did not have to escalate to very high doses of opiates and in fact, they had long-term benefit.

Palmer: If we can find those key molecules that make the difference, we can target them and maybe make morphine last longer and better for a twenty-five year old.

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

B. Tools to Help the Blind Find Their Way in New Environments

Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz are using their knowledge of computer vision in robotics to develop a variety of systems to help the blind. Computer engineer Roberto Manduchi says his lab has identified and developed a number of technological tools.

Manduchi: For example, one of the systems that we are working is a system that would allow a blind person in a new environment to find their way. Systems out there that do optical character recognition are not very robust yet, so we don't have yet a computer that can read any signs it sees in the scene.

Narrator: Instead, Manduchi's lab developed a simple system using economical color targets paired with a camera cell phone system.

Manduchi: The system simply can see and detect where these color targets are in the scene, so you can put a little bar code, for example, below the color target and you will be able to have a label of a certain point of space, a cell phone can have a database and understand if it sees this label, I am in a certain location where I want to go.

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

C. Breath Therapy Helps Ease Chronic Lower Back Pain

Narrator: This is Science Today. A study conducted at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, has found that a Western mind-body technique used for years in Germany helps patients suffering from chronic lower back pain. Dr. Wolf Mehling, who led the study, says it's called breath therapy.

Mehling: It's a combination of movement exercises with hands-on individual work and has a meditative approach to body sensations, particularly body sensations caused by the movement of breath in the body.

Narrator: Like yoga or Tai Chi, Mehling says patients using breath therapy experience proprioception, or body awareness, which helped patients cope with their chronic lower back pain.

Mehling: Any emotion that we have changes our breath rhythm. So, the breath is kind of at the interface of physical functions and emotional functions and thinking. It's kind of the core thing that is actually surprising that medicine hasn't taken more attention to it.

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

D. Study Suggests Targeting Dietary Recommendations to Individuals

Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have conducted a study of twins that found that no matter what lifestyle a person chose, whether active or sedentary, genes played an overriding role in their cholesterol response. Paul Williams, who led the study, said now is the hard part.

Williams: Which is, among all the genes that could potentially be involved – some of which we know, some of which we don't know – trying to find that which could explain such a high correlation between the two twins.

Narrator: In the meantime, Williams says the same dietary recommendations may not be appropriate for all individuals.

Williams: If we can find the genes that seem to be able to make one susceptible to lowering dietary fat, then we might be able to target the interventions. We may say, you look like a good candidate for lowering your dietary fat and lowering your LDL cholesterol. To other people, we might be able to recommend that other approaches are required and that diet is not likely to be beneficial.

Narrator: The researchers will next conduct a larger study involving 400 sets of twins. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.

E. Schizophrenia Study Links Ethnicity to Low Rates of Drug Adherence

Narrator: This is Science Today. Despite improved drug therapies for schizophrenia – a serious mental illness that affects more than two million Americans – a recent study found only forty-one percent of patients take their antipsychotic medication on a regular basis. Dr. Dilip Jeste, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, says while it's been known that African Americans were significantly less likely to adhere to their medication, their study identified for the first time a low rate among Latinos.

Jeste: It is a clearly worrisome finding that both African-Americans and Latinos have a low rate of adherence. It's not clear what is the explanation – the explanation could be biological and or psychosocial.

Narrator: Biologically, Jeste says there is evidence that certain side effects of medications are more common in certain ethnic groups.

Jeste: What is needed is an understanding what are the factors associated with non-adherence in Latinos and then try to find ways in which we can improve the adherence rate in that group.

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