A summary of notable stories in the media involving Pitt people, programs, research, or events.

• Internationally renowned opera star Marilyn Horne, a Bradford native, received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Pitt Oct. 1 during the dedication ceremony for Blaisdell Hall, the Bradford campus’ new fine arts and communication arts building. News of Horne’s Pitt’s honorary degree was spread far and wide by way of a nationally syndicated Associated Press story that was picked up by ABC News, and the Akron Beacon Journal, Chicago Tribune, Cincinnati Enquirer, Duluth News Tribune, Hartford Courant, Miami Herald, New Orleans Times-Picayune, San Jose Mercury News, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, among other outlets.

• With the flu vaccine in short supply, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Precautions to help prevent or ease the pain of the flu were the subject of an Oct. 13 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article featuring Lawrence Ellis, Pitt professor of medicine, and Richard Zimmerman, associate professor in Pitt’s Department of Family Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology with a secondary appointment in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health. To prevent spread of the disease, Ellis recommends keeping one’s distance from flu-sufferers. “If a spouse is sick, it’s not a bad idea for the other to sleep in a separate room,” Ellis explained.

But children, who, according to Zimmerman, are the primary transmitters of influenza, are often more difficult to avoid. Unlike adults, Zimmerman explained, children can transmit the flu virus up to six days before they show symptoms of the illness themselves. “If you have the flu or think you have the flu, the best thing to do is stay home,” Ellis was quoted as saying. But, in some cases, a trip to the doctor’s office may be necessary. Doctors can prescribe antiviral medications for patients at a “high risk for complications from the flu,” the article said, or those who come “in close contact with a high-risk person, so [as] not to spread the illness to him or her.”

Other standard treatments include rest, drinking plenty of fluids, and taking acetaminophen (such as Tylenol) or ibuprofen (such as Advil) for fever and pain. Zimmerman cautioned that aspirin should not be taken by people with the flu because the combination has been associated with Reye’s syndrome, an illness that can cause liver and brain damage. Zimmerman also noted that patients who experience the “double dip” effect—that is, feeling bad, getting better, but then feeling bad again—should see a doctor immediately. “A double dip could be the sign of a secondary bacterial infection, such as pneumonia,” he said. And it is these sorts of complications that prove fatal.

• David Brent, a Pitt professor of psychiatry, pediatrics, and epidemiology who sits on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel, was quoted in the Oct. 15 Wall Street Journal in a story exploring why antidepressants cause suicidal tendencies in children but not in adults. According to the article, “A growing number of discoveries suggest that depression in young people isn’t simply a scaled-down version of depression in adults. The symptoms and the responses to antidepressants are different, indicating different biological activity. Teen brains, scientists are finding, are different than adult brains.”

For more than a year, scientists have been analyzing published and unpublished studies in which children and adolescents took Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) for depression. The FDA concluded that young people taking SSRIs were at an 80 percent increased risk of becoming suicidal when compared to young people taking a placebo. Though none of the patients in the studies committed suicide, “it seems likely that the effect is real,” Brent was quoted as saying. Last month, an FDA advisory panel recommended a prominent “black box” warning on SSRIs indicating the drugs increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in a small number of young people. According to the article, Brent voted against requiring the warning, saying it may discourage doctors and parents from using drugs that have helped many young people suffering from depression.