TUESDAY, April 21 (HealthDay News) -- Two factors that predict depression in people after they've been hospitalized in an intensive care unit have been identified by Johns Hopkins researchers.

Their study involved 160 people who'd been hospitalized with acute lung injury, a respiratory distress syndrome that typically requires invasive interventions, including the use of ventilators. The death rate of people with acute lung injury is about 40 percent.

The Hopkins team considered acute lung injury to be typical of intensive care unit (ICU) cases.

They analyzed data on each person's status and care while in ICU as well as information from questionnaires on depression that the study participants filled out six months after their diagnosis. About 26 percent were considered to have depression.

The study found that those who were depressed were more likely to have had greater severity of organ failure and to have received 75 milligrams or more a day of a benzodiazepine sedative.

More severe organ failure can lead to a longer period of physical recovery after people are discharged from an ICU. And this slow recovery might help explain the increased risk of depression, Dr. O. Joseph Bienvenu, an associate professor of psychiatry the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a news release from the school.

However, he and his colleagues could not explain the association they found between increased risk of depression and the benzodiazepine dose given to people in the ICU.

The study was published online in the journal Critical Care Medicine.

"The hope is that as we learn more about the effect of variations in ICU care, we'll be able to predict which patients are most susceptible to depression, prevent some depression by changing ICU practices and make sure patients receive adequate mental health monitoring after discharge," Bienvenu said.

More information

The Society of Critical Care Medicine offers information about hospitalization in intensive care units  .

THURSDAY, April 16 (HealthDay News) -- On-the-job lead exposure continues to be a hazard for U.S. workers, a new government report shows.

Although the rate of elevated lead blood levels among employed adults declined overall between 1994 and 2007, there was a slight increase in cases between 2005 and 2007, according to a report in the April 17 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The data was taken from by 37 states in 2005, and 38 states in 2006 and 2007. National rates of elevated blood lead levels declined from 14 per 100,000 employed adults in 1994 to 7.8 per 100,000 adults in 2007. Between 2004 and 2005, that rate dropped 4 percent, from 7.5 per 100,000 adults to 7.2 per 100,000 adults. However, it increased 3 percent between 2005 and 2006/2007, from 7.2 per 100,000 adult to 7.4 per 100,000 adults.

The troubling trend dovetails with recent research about the toxicity of lead even at low doses, the researchers noted. The findings also highlight the need for stronger efforts by industry, labor, government and others to reduce occupational exposures in businesses such as battery manufacturing, mining of lead and zinc ores, and painting and paper-hanging. There also needs to be an effort to educate the public on how to prevent non-occupational exposures from recreational, home improvement and food sources, the study suggests.

According to the report, some of the interventions could include follow-up interviews with doctors, employers and workers; investigations of work sites; technical assistance; getting consultation and enforcement help from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; and educational materials and outreach programs to alert the public to the health threat that lead exposure poses.

More information

More on lead poisoning in the workplace can be found at American Academy of Family Physicians  .

WEDNESDAY, April 8 (HealthDay News) -- Marijuana use and reckless driving are interconnected, say Canadian researchers.

"We observed that dangerous driving behaviors are interrelated. Individuals scoring high on impulsivity or sensation-seeking scales demonstrated an elevated risk of driving under the influence of cannabis," study senior author Jacques Bergeron, a professor in the department of psychology at the Universite de Montreal, said in a school news release.

"To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the association between driving under the influence of cannabis and a wide range of dangerous driving behaviors."

Bergeron and colleagues asked 83 men, aged 17 to 49, about their driving history and observed them in driving simulators. Men were chosen for the study because they more often engage in dangerous driving and driving under the influence of marijuana, the researchers explained.

They found that 35 percent of the participants had been involved in one or more road crashes with material damage in the previous three years. Thirty percent admitted to using marijuana, and 80 percent of those said they drove under the influence of marijuana at least once in the previous year.

"Our study found that men with self-reported DUIC (driving under the influence of cannabis) tend to be associated with an increased risk of being involved in a car accident," study author Isabelle Richer, a doctoral candidate in the psychology department, said in the news release.

The study was published recently in the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about drugged driving.

SATURDAY, April 4 (HealthDay News) -- Resolvins, a new family of biologically active products of omega-3 fatty acids, may be able to remedy the inflammation of periodontal disease and restore gums to health, say Boston University researchers.

Two types of resolvins are made from the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), both of which keep blood triglycerides under control and may inhibit the progression of atherosclerosis. EPA and DHA help reduce inflammation and are often used to help people with inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease, according to background information in a new release from the International & American Association for Dental Research.

Resolvins of the E series (RvE1) are derived from EPA, and resolvins of the D series (RvD1) are derived from DHA. Previous research showed that RvE1 provided protection against soft tissue and bone loss associated with gum disease and actually restored lost soft tissue and bone to healthy levels.

In this new study, the researchers caused gum disease in rabbits by applying P. gingivalis, the bacteria that causes gum disease in humans. Treatment with RvD1 was beneficial.

The study was to be presented Saturday at the research association's meeting in Miami.

The finding supports the researchers' hypothesis that DHA-derived resolvins, as well as those derived from EPA, have the potential to resolve inflammation and restore periodontal health, the association said in its news release.

More information

The American Academy of Periodontology has more about gum disease  .