MONDAY, Feb. 11 (HealthDay News) -- The epilepsy drug oxcarbazepine (Trileptal) does not seem to prevent migraines, as once thought, a new study finds.

Migraines affect more than 28 million Americans, and certain epilepsy drugs have been shown to be effective in preventing these severe headaches. For this reason, many assumed that oxcarbazepine would also work against migraines.

However, "the results of this trial do not support preliminary data which had suggested oxcarbazepine was effective in preventing migraine," lead researcher Dr. Stephen D. Silberstein, from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said in a statement. "While several epilepsy drugs have been used for decades to prevent migraine, oxcarbazepine did not prevent migraine in this study despite it being shown to be safe and well-tolerated."

In the trial, 170 men and women took oxcarbazepine or placebo daily for almost five months. All the people in the study suffered from three to nine migraine attacks a month. Silberstein's team found no difference between people taking oxcarbazepine or placebo in the number of migraines they suffered during the study.

The report appears in the Feb. 12 issue of Neurology.

"It's good to do these types of double-blind studies to assess effectiveness of medications," said Dr. Walter J. Molofsky, chairman of the Department of Neurology at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.

"Since some antiepileptics are useful against migraine headaches, it would be reasonable to assume that Trileptal would work, too. This is an example of what is necessary to prove the presence or absence of benefit," Molofsky said.

The three epilepsy drugs that have been shown to prevent migraines, topiramate, divalproex and gabapentin, do so through several mechanisms. One mechanism is the regulation of the neurotransmitter called GABA. However, oxcarbazepine appears not to affect GABA activity. It is possible that epilepsy drugs need to regulate GABA to prevent migraine, Silberstein noted.

Another expert agreed that this drug is not likely to prevent migraine.

"This is a study done by a group of experts in the field following all the usual standards of clinical research, so the findings can be accepted as valid," said Dr. Ellen Drexler, director of the Headache Center at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. "The results are not that surprising, as drugs with related mechanisms of action such as carbamazepine or phenytoin have never been found to be efficacious for migraine prophylaxis."

The study was paid for by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., maker of oxcarbazepine. Just last week , the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned that 11 epilepsy drugs, including oxcarbazepine, might boost the risk of suicide among users.

More information

For more information on migraines, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

FRIDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Medical residents who are depressed are about six times more likely to make medication errors than those who aren't depressed, says a study that looked a 123 pediatric residents at three children's hospitals in the United States.

Researchers found that 20 percent of the residents were depressed, and 74 percent were burned out. During the study period, the residents made a total of 45 medications errors, and those who were depressed made 6.2 times more medication errors than those who weren't depressed.

There didn't appear to be any link between higher medication error rates and burnout. The study was published online Feb. 7 in the British Medical Journal.

These findings suggest that doctors' mental health may play a more significant role in patient safety than previously suspected, the study authors said. In addition, the high burnout rate among residents in this study -- consistent with other studies -- indicates that methods of training doctors may cause stress that harms residents' health.

The researchers did note that their data was collected before work hour limits were implemented for medical residents in the United States.

More needs to be done to study and improve the mental health and working conditions of doctors, the study authors concluded.

Each year in the United States, as many as 98,000 patients die due to medication errors, and the stress of resident training, including lack of sleep and leisure time, are among the most commonly cited reasons for such errors, according to background information in the study.

While it may seem logical to link medication errors to depression and burnout among doctors, these study findings are not conclusive, researchers from Scotland's University of Aberdeen noted in an accompanying editorial.

Large, prospective trials need to be conducted to pinpoint the factors that cause medication errors, they wrote.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more about medication errors.

THURSDAY, Feb. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Women and men who are victims of intimate partner violence are also more likely to suffer from chronic health conditions and participate in risky behaviors, U.S. health officials report.

Every year in the United States, such violence accounts for some 1,200 deaths and 2 million injuries among women, and almost 600,000 injuries among men, according to new statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday.

"One in four women and one of seven men experience physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime," said CDC epidemiologist Michele Black. "Those who experience intimate partner violence during their lifetime were also more likely to report a range of adverse health conditions and health risk behaviors."

In the study, Black's team gathered data on 70,156 men and women who participated in the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. These individuals completed the section of the survey on intimate partner violence. Responses came from people in 16 states and two territories.

The results of the survey are published in the Feb. 8 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a CDC publication.

The researchers found that the prevalence of intimate partner violence was significantly higher among women than men. In addition, it was more common among multiracial, non-Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska native women, and among women with low incomes.

However, intimate partner violence does appear to be on the decline overall, according to U.S. Department of Justice figures. In 1993, the rate of intimate partner violence was 9.8 per 1,000 women and 1.6 per 1,000 men. In 2005, both rates dropped, to 3.6 per 1,000 women and 0.9 per 1, 000 men.

The CDC report found that women who suffered from intimate partner violence were significantly more likely to have chronic health conditions and engage in risky behaviors. These chronic conditions did not, however, include diabetes, high blood pressure or being overweight.

But chronic illness associated with intimate partner violence among women did include high cholesterol and increased risk for HIV infection, according to the report.

Men who experienced intimate partner violence were more likely to use canes, crutches and wheelchairs and suffer from arthritis, asthma and stroke. In addition, these men have risk factors for HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases. They were also likely to smoke and drink heavily, the researchers found.

"This underscores the importance of intimate partner violence as a public health issue," Black said. "Health-care providers have the opportunity to assist survivors of intimate partner violence and address the health-related needs of these individuals and reduce their subsequent risks for negative affects."

One expert agreed with the findings but was concerned that lumping violence against men in with violence against women clouds the true picture of domestic violence.

"Beyond concerns for these data representing the true state of [intimate partner violence] and associated health concerns, this is certainly an important study," said Jay G. Silverman, director of Violence Against Women Prevention at Harvard University School of Public Health.

What is a critical in examining these data is the notion of intimate partner violence as a public health issue, Silverman said. "Although women and girls suffer far higher rates of abuse, are far more likely to be injured, and far more likely to be killed by male partners than are men reporting abuse from women, there is a push from some professional quarters to equate these experiences and remove considerations of gender," he noted.

In many countries, data indicate that violence from husbands and other male partners exacts a terrible toll on the health of women and children, and is a major factor in the increasing "feminization" of the HIV epidemic across the United States, Africa and Asia, Silverman said.

"Hopefully, we as a country can overcome this desire to remove gender from our public health approach and join the rest of the world in focusing on the major threats posed by violence against women and girls from their male partners," Silverman said.

More information

For more on domestic violence, visit the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence  .

SATURDAY, Feb. 2 (HealthDay News) -- It appears that the United States will fall far short of its benchmark goals toward eliminating tuberculosis, according to an analysis of National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey data.

Researchers found that the rate of latent TB infection (LTBI) in the U.S. population in 1999-2000 was 4.2 percent. This does not include homeless people or those in prison. The current infection rate would have to be 1 percent and decreasing for the United States to meet its goal of TB incidence of less than one per million by 2010.

"Persons with LTBI are not infectious and cannot transmit TB to others, and only 5 to 10 percent of individuals with LTBI will go on to develop active TB, which is infectious. But because the risk of progression to TB can be substantially reduced by preventive treatment, it is crucial that LTBI be detected and treated," said study author Dr. Diane Bennett, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of the 11.2 million people with LTBI in the country in 1999-2000, only one in four had been diagnosed, and only 13 percent had been prescribed treatment, the data analysis revealed.

"The LTBI rates among non-Hispanic whites, 1.9 percent, is close to that required for TB elimination, but the far higher rates among all other groups make U.S. TB elimination by 2010 unlikely," wrote Bennett and colleagues.

The LTBI rate among people living below the poverty level was 6.1 percent, compared with 3.3 percent for those living above the poverty level. The analysis also found that the TB infection rate among foreign-born people was 18.7 percent, compared to 1.8 percent among people born in the United States. Of those, 12 percent of the foreign-born and 16 percent of the U.S.-born had received treatment.

"The higher LTBI rates among some subgroups suggest that specific public health actions should be taken for and with immigrant communities, racial minorities and individuals living in poverty," Bennett said. "While LTBI is not infectious and latently affected individuals are not a threat to others, increased outreach for education, diagnosis and provision of appropriate preventive treatment could prevent many future cases of active TB."

The findings were published in the first issue for February of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about TB.