Database

Outcome of interest = brain cancer. No increased risk was found for either lifetime exposure or the most recent 5 years of exposure. No Dose Response effect was found. Evidence from: T Sorahan et al. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. October (2001) Vol.58 # 10 p 626. The report includes data on the emfs exposure profile and electricity generation workers. The Radar report is available to subscribers: 1#9 8 Evidence from: DA Savitz. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. October (2001) Vol.58 # 10 p 617. The commentator seriously doubts the need for any more expenditure and effort on epidemiology in this area until some new biologically credible mechanism has been proposed. Even then, the new studies would need to quantitatively account for why previous studies had not established a significant risk. 1#9 9

A strong but uncertain association between solvent exposure and low sperm count was determined. Evidence from: N Cherry et al. Occupational and Environmental Medicine. October (2001) Vol.58 # 10 p 635. The Radar report is available to subscribers: 1#9 7

Evidence from: SJ Turnbull et al. Brain Injury. Sept (2001) Vol. 15 #9 p 775. PTSD is defined in part by the presence of intrusive memories of the traumatic event. It might be supposed that amnesia would lessen the impact. This was a small study designed to explore this self-evident truth. In fact it was found that groups of people with extensive amnesia or, no traumatic memories of the index event, have higher levels of psychological distress than do those with traumatic memories. Comment Amnesia does not appear to protect against adverse psychological consequences of trauma. But does protect against intrusive memories! Diagnosable harm is required for compensation purposes. It would seem PTSD should not be cited in cases of amnesia, other diagnoses should apply.   Evidence from: E Doig et al. Brain Injury. Sept (2001) Vol. 15 #9 p 747 Withdrawal from society/community following traumatic brain injury is a sign of loss of quality of life and may be considered when assessing damag

Evidence from: MB Glenn et al. Brain Injury. Sept (2001) Vol. 15 #9 P 811. A study of out patients with traumatic brain injury. At issue is the prevalence of depression. 41 outpatients were tested using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) at one year since the injury event. The BDI register someone as mildly depressed if they have a score of 13 or over. Moderate or severe depression corresponds to a score of 19 or more. 59% were >13 = depressed 34% were >19 = moderate or severe depression. Depression is a function of age, female gender, a negative view of the injury event, mild TBI and use of antidepressants. Comment At first this appears to indicate a high prevalence of clinical depression in TBI cases. However, his is an unusual group, most mild TBI cases don’t keep coming for outpatient work at one year, yet many of the cases here were mild TBI. The BDI measures severity and is not usually used for diagnosis. Alternate methods should have been applied to the diagnosis, before

A small study of alternate therapies for PTSD. Exposure therapy (ET) is essentially a process of reliving the event in safe surroundings, this approach has been criticised and strong evidence has been found that it is worse than neutral. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy actively addresses beliefs and actions. Evidence from: N Paunovic et al. Behavioural Research and Therapy. October (2001) Vol. 39 #10 p 1183. The Radar report is available to subscribers: 1#9 3

General fitness was not protective against non-recreational causes of musculoskeletal disorders. Evidence from: CA Macera et al. American Journal of Epidemiology. July (2001) Vol. 154#3 p 251. The Radar report is available to subscribers: 1#9 2