A calm, not-so-easily distressed personality is associated with a 49% lower risk of developing dementia, according to Hui-Xin Wang and colleagues from the Karolinska Institute.

And according to the findings, which are published in Neurology,  it’s 49% whether a person is a socially outgoing extrovert or a less socially active, stay-at-home introvert.

The scientists reached these conclusions after reviewing findings from the Kungsholmen Project, a time-oriented population-based study of dementia and aging in Stockholm residents.

“These findings provide further evidence that certain personality traits may play a role in dementia development and that personality-lifestyle interactions may be especially important for determining dementia risk,” wrote the scientists.

Wang’s group believes any impact of chill personality is mediated by stress.

They point to previous studies showing that chronic stress adversely impacts the hippocampus and other regions of the brain, possibly causing dementia.

David Knopman, a Neurology professor at Mayo Clinic who commented on the report for MedPageToday, didn’t buy the link to stress though.

He thinks the chill personality trait reflects a brain that is fundamentally more resistant to dementia.

It’s also possible that folks who can and usually do chill are better at compensating for dementia symptoms, thereby delaying their appearance and skewing the data, according to Knopman.

Alas these findings may be good news for the legions of the laid back, but it’s not clear that the newly identified risk factor is subject to one’s control. And if not it’s about as useful as saying that age and family history are risk factors for dementia.

In a report released last week, the Environmental Protection Agency, US Geological Survey and other federal agencies concluded that rising sea levels triggered by global warming threatens coastal wetlands and barrier islands and in the Middle Atlantic States.
 
The report said the rate of rise in sea level is accelerating in part because of melting ice sheets and glaciers, and also because warmer water takes up more space.

Middle Atlantic States are especially at risk because much of their infrastructure has been placed at or near sea level and because the area is hit frequently by major storms.

The report, available here, mentions that in the last century, coastal erosion occurred at between 2.4 and 4.4 millimeters per year, or roughly one foot for the 100 year period. But “it is virtually certain,” according to the report, that the pace of this erosion will double in the 21st century.

Barrier islands, coastal waterways and spits are unlikely to withstand this sea rise. “It is likely that some barrier islands in this region will cross a threshold,” and start disintegrating, according to the report, which mentioned in particular the islands of North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

The report’s prediction of rising sea levels supports an earlier prediction by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations-based initiative. The Panel believes the seas will rise as much as 2 feet in this century.

In less-developed areas, coastal wetlands might survive the sea level rise by moving to higher ground. But in the Middle Atlantic States, a dense mixture of buildings and roads renders inland migration impossible.

Atypical antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal, Zyprexa and Seroquel double the risk of sudden cardiac death according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

To reach this conclusion, Wayne Ray and colleagues at Vanderbilt reviewed Medicaid claims data for 276,907 people that were between 30-74 years old and had no cardiac history.

Remarkably, between 1990 and 2005 one third of that population received a prescription for antipsychotics. There were 478 sudden cardiac deaths in this group, twice the rate in controls. That’s 3 deaths per 1,000 people per year for those on the juice.

The increased risk was present in those taking the newer, atypical antipsychotics and those taking the older varieties, and it became more pronounced at higher doses. 

These days, 90% of prescriptions for schizophrenia are for an atypical antipsychotic even though government sponsored studies from 2005 suggest these drugs are not more effective than the older antipsychotics which are available in generic form and cost a tenth as much.

In 2006, scientists found that atypical antipsychotics are not effective for situational psychoses associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, yet they are widely prescribed for this.

The newer drugs are also commonly used to manage emotional lability complicating psychiatric disorders of childhood such as attention deficit disorder and autism, although they are not FDA-approved for this purpose.

And then there are the side effects which include marked weight gain, metabolic abnormalities and tics. More than 1,200 children have suffered serious problems attributable to Risperdal alone, and 31 of them died.

 “Physicians need to do a careful cardiovascular evaluation prior to prescribing these drugs, especially if there are alternative treatments,” Ray told the Wall Street Journal. And “if they’re used, (use) the lowest possible dose.”