Archive for category: News

Bengaluru: A retired gynaecologist from a government hospital in Tumakuru has been sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 20,000 for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2,000 from a pregnant daily wage worker in February 2021 to perform her delivery.  

The judgment was delivered by a special court for Lokayukta cases, comprising Judge Yasmin Parveen Ladkhan. The judge noted that, despite being a government employee, the doctor demanded money from a financially weak pregnant woman to carry out the delivery. 

The incident dates back to February 2, 2021, when the complainant, a daily wage worker, was brought to the government hospital in labour pain, accompanied by her brother-in-law. 

Also read- Doctor sentenced to 20 years jail for sexually assaulting minor

At that time, the doctor allegedly refused to attend to the complainant unless her brother-in-law paid Rs 3,000 in advance for the delivery. Since the husband of the complainant was away for work, the brother-in-law managed to arrange Rs 2,000 and handed it over to the doctor through a Group D staff member. 

Later, when he questioned the doctor whether it was right to act so ruthlessly during an emergency, which could have affected the pregnant woman and the child. In response, the doctor said that almost every pregnant patient who visits the hospital for delivery pays Rs 3,000. Therefore, he was not an exception. 

To keep the information as evidence, the complainant’s brother-in-law recorded his conversation with the doctor. Later, he filed a complaint with the Lokayukta police on February 4, 2021. 

Following the complaint, the police launched an investigation. The audio recording was sent to the forensic science laboratory, which confirmed that the voices belonged to the doctor and the brother-in-law. Along with other circumstantial evidence, the police filed a chargesheet against the doctor, accusing her of demanding and accepting the bribe. 

After the matter was taken up by the court, Special Public Prosecutor N Basavaraju informed the judge that the case was not a trap and the voice recording was played during the trial. 

Speaking to TOI, Basavaraju said, “The woman was writhing in pain, but that did not affect the doctor. The woman’s husband, also a daily wage worker, was away in the field. Summoned by his brother, he rushed to the hospital. With great difficulty, they arranged a Rs 2,000 bribe, and the brother-in-law handed it over to the doctor through a Group D staffer of the hospital.”

Considering his side, the court sentenced the doctor to five years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a Rs 20,000 fine. The judge also imposed an additional six months of simple imprisonment in case of payment default.

Also read- 66-year-old doctor sentenced to 3 years jail for molesting minor

Drinking any amount of alcohol likely increases the risk of dementia, suggests the largest combined observational and genetic study to date, published online in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.

Even light drinking-generally thought to be protective, based on observational studies-is unlikely to lower the risk, which rises in tandem with the quantity of alcohol consumed, the research indicates.

Current thinking suggests that there might be an ‘optimal dose’ of alcohol for brain health, but most of these studies have focused on older people and/or didn’t differentiate between former and lifelong non-drinkers, complicating efforts to infer causality, note the researchers.

To try and circumnavigate these issues and strengthen the evidence base, the researchers drew on observational data and genetic methods (Mendelian randomisation) from two large biological databanks for the entire ‘dose’ range of alcohol consumption.

These were the US Million Veteran Program (MVP), which includes people of European, African, and Latin American ancestry, and the UK Biobank (UKB), which includes people of predominantly European ancestry.

Participants who were aged 56–72 at baseline, were monitored from recruitment until their first dementia diagnosis, death, or the date of last follow-up (December 2019 for MVP and January 2022 for UKB), whichever came first. The average monitoring period was 4 years for the US group, and 12 for the UK group.

Alcohol consumption was derived from questionnaire responses—over 90% of participants said they drank alcohol—and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) clinical screening tool. This screens for hazardous drinking patterns, including the frequency of binge drinking (6 or more drinks at a time).

In all, 559,559 participants from both groups were included in observational analyses, 14,540 of whom developed dementia of any type during the monitoring period:10,564 in the US group; and 3976 in the UK group. And 48,034 died: 28,738 in the US group and 19,296 in the UK group.

Observational analyses revealed U-shaped associations between alcohol and dementia risk: compared with light drinkers (fewer than 7 drinks a week) a 41% higher risk was observed among non-drinkers and heavy drinkers consuming 40 or more drinks a week, rising to a 51% higher risk among those who were alcohol dependent.

Mendelian randomisation genetic analyses drew on key data from multiple large individual genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of dementia, involving a total of 2.4 million participants to ascertain lifetime (rather than current) genetically predicted risks.

Mendelian randomisation leverages genetic data, minimising the impact of other potentially influential factors, to estimate causal effects: genomic risk for a trait (in this case, alcohol consumption) essentially stands in for the trait itself.

Three genetic measures related to alcohol use were used as different exposures, to study the impact on dementia risk of alcohol quantity, as well as problematic and dependent drinking.

These exposures were: self-reported weekly drinks (641 independent genetic variants); problematic ‘risky’ drinking (80 genetic variants); and alcohol dependency (66 genetic variants).

Higher genetic risk for all 3 exposure levels was associated with an increased risk of dementia, with a linear increase in dementia risk the higher the alcohol consumption.

For example, an extra 1-3 drinks a week was associated with a 15% higher risk. And a doubling in the genetic risk of alcohol dependency was associated with a 16% increase in dementia risk.

But no U-shaped association was found between alcohol intake and dementia, and no protective effects of low levels of alcohol intake were observed. Instead, dementia risk steadily increased with more genetically predicted drinking.

What’s more, those who went on to develop dementia typically drank less over time in the years preceding their diagnosis, suggesting that reverse causation-whereby early cognitive decline leads to reduced alcohol consumption-underlies the supposed protective effects of alcohol found in previous observational studies, say the researchers.

They acknowledge that a principal limitation of their findings is that the strongest statistical associations were found in people of European ancestry, because of the numbers of participants of this ethnic heritage studied. Mendelian randomisation also relies on assumptions that can’t be verified, they add.

Nevertheless, they suggest that their findings “challenge the notion that low levels of alcohol are neuroprotective.”

And they conclude: “Our study findings support a detrimental effect of all types of alcohol consumption on dementia risk, with no evidence supporting the previously suggested protective effect of moderate drinking.

“The pattern of reduced alcohol use before dementia diagnosis observed in our study underscores the complexity of inferring causality from observational data, especially in ageing populations.

“Our findings highlight the importance of considering reverse causation and residual confounding in studies of alcohol and dementia, and they suggest that reducing alcohol consumption may be an important strategy for dementia prevention.”

Reference:

Topiwala, A., et al. (2025) Alcohol use and risk of dementia in diverse populations: evidence from cohort, case-control and Mendelian randomisation approaches. BMJ Evidence Based Medicine. DOI: 10.1136/bmjebm2025-113913

Researchers have found in a new nationwide population-based study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders that patients with Graves’ disease face a significantly higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders compared with the general population, highlighting the complex interplay between thyroid autoimmunity, neuropsychiatric health, and long-term disease management. The study analyzed a large cohort of individuals diagnosed with Graves’ disease against matched controls and found that the risk was particularly elevated for depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, and sleep disturbances, with these associations persisting even two years after the initial diagnosis. Interestingly, no significant association was observed between Graves’ disease and the risk of schizophrenia, suggesting that the thyroid-psychiatric link may be specific to certain mental health conditions rather than encompassing all psychiatric disorders. These findings underscore the importance of integrating psychological assessment and monitoring into routine clinical care for patients with Graves’ disease, as mental health complications may extend beyond the acute phase of endocrine dysfunction and persist well into long-term follow-up. The mechanisms underlying these associations may involve immune-mediated pathways, alterations in thyroid hormone regulation affecting neurotransmitter systems, chronic disease burden, or psychosocial stressors related to living with a long-term autoimmune condition. For clinicians, the results reinforce the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between endocrinologists, psychiatrists, and primary care physicians to ensure early detection and appropriate management of psychiatric symptoms in patients with Graves’ disease. For patients, the findings highlight the importance of awareness regarding mood changes, anxiety, or sleep disturbances as possible complications linked to their thyroid condition, emphasizing the role of proactive mental health care in improving quality of life and treatment outcomes. While the study provides robust evidence from a large dataset, further research is warranted to explore causal mechanisms, evaluate the impact of antithyroid treatments on psychiatric risk, and determine whether early psychological interventions can mitigate long-term complications. Overall, the study strengthens the argument for holistic management approaches that address both the endocrine and psychological dimensions of Graves’ disease.