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MONDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- Imagine using a "dipstick" test to find out if your food is spoiled.

If things work out as John Lavigne hopes, it just might be possible.

Lavigne, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of South Carolina, and his research team have developed a polymer sensor that detects biogenic amines, the breakdown products of proteins that are a hallmark of food spoilage.

However, some experts are skeptical, saying it would be hard to improve upon good, old-fashioned food hygiene and a sensitive nose.

The findings were presented Sunday in Chicago at the American Chemical Society's national meeting.

Targeting nonvolatile amines -- the breakdown products that you cannot smell -- the test is about 90 percent accurate, Lavigne said, and can detect spoilage in different kinds of meats, vegetables, fruits and beverages.

"Hundreds, thousands, millions of people per year in the U.S. get sick, because they cannot tell when food goes bad. So, there's a lot of opportunity out there to short circuit some of these illnesses," Lavigne said.

The test works much as pH paper does. A small sample of what Lavigne called "the food's natural liquid" (his team used fish) is added to a purplish, dark-red solution of polymer. If the food is starting to turn, the solution changes color, from red to orange to yellow, depending on the extent of spoilage.

Though the test is currently solution-based, Lavigne is working on a dipstick test for consumer use. "There are a couple of different formats that we're looking at," he said. "All would require a small, liquid-based sample from the food. If it's a beverage, that's easy. If it's chicken or fish, we're working on developing a method to very easily extract a small bit of liquid and directly introduce it into the sensor."

Lavigne described the current format as "very discrete," pencil-sized, but shorter.

Some experts questioned the utility of the system.

"What's wrong with your nose?" asked Philip M. Tierno, director of Clinical Microbiology & Immunology and associate professor of Microbiology & Pathology at New York University Medical Center. "Your nose is a very sensitive mechanical device that can detect amines. If it's bad, you'll know it."

Tierno, who did call the findings "a great beginning," said that when food spoils, both volatile and nonvolatile amines are produced. "A dead carcass will not decide which kind to display, both are present. Whether your system detects one or another, it doesn't matter."

Dr. Pascal James Imperato, chairman of the department of preventive medicine and community health at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and former commissioner of health for New York City, noted that a negative result in this test does not mean the food is safe to eat raw.

That's because the test only detects the products caused by bacterial breakdown of food as the bacteria "eat" it. Some pathogens don't "ingest" the food they inhabit, and even if they do, that breakdown will be slow if the food is properly refrigerated.

"All it is doing is measuring degradation of protein due to spoilage. So, if the test is negative, that doesn't mean the food isn't contaminated with toxicogenic E. coli, salmonella, staphylococcus or any other microbe."

Indeed, Imperato said, a test such as this could not have prevented the recent E. coli outbreak linked to contaminated spinach, for instance, because the pathogens were not breaking down the leaves. "Very often, these organisms are simply on the surface of the vegetables but not attacking the plant," he explained.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unveiled a draft of new voluntary guidelines for commercial processing and handling of fresh-cut vegetables and fruit to minimize such outbreaks.

In the meantime, the best way to prevent food poisoning, Tierno said, is to consider all food potentially pathogenic. "If you practice good food hygiene, and you cook your food well, you will kill potential pathogens, whether a parasite in the fish, or a [bacteria] in the fish, or E. coli in meat.

"In public health," Imperato said, "there is an old adage: When in doubt, throw it out."

More information

For more information on food handling, visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

TUESDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. colleges and universities are experiencing a surge in the number of students seeking mental health services, a new report finds.

And while most schools do have some mental health services, they don't offer programs specifically geared to treat anxiety disorders, the most frequently diagnosed mental illness in children and teens. They also don't have the staff to meet this rising need, researchers say.

"Not surprisingly, the nation's top schools are reporting that there's an increase in students needing and accessing mental health services," confirmed Jerilyn Ross, president and CEO of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA), which today released a survey documenting these trends.

"Nearly all of the national university and liberal arts colleges responding reported an increased usage of student mental health through the past three years," Ross said in a press briefing on Tuesday. "We're also seeing a growing number of students coming to college with a history of mental illness, with an increase after 9/11. There is also increased awareness around mental illness."

Anxiety disorders refer to a spectrum of illnesses characterized by anxiety, worry and fear, which include obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as specific phobias.

According to the ADAA, more than 40 million adult Americans are diagnosed annually with an anxiety disorder, making this the most common mental health diagnosis. Anxiety disorders are also the most common mental disorders to occur during childhood and adolescence.

The novelty of heading off to college can present special difficulties, experts say. It's also a time of life when mental health problems tend to emerge.

"The classic issue for many people starting out in college is separation from family. They're free at last, but it's a double-edged sword," said Alec L. Miller, chief of child and adolescent psychology at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City.

"There are a lot of benefits but also risks and trouble spots," Miller said. "A lot of kids are not well prepared with adequate internal resources to withstand stress. Some kids don't monitor eating and sleeping properly, and all these things create vulnerability for anxiety and other psychiatric disorders."

The report, Anxiety Disorders on Campus: The Growing Need for College Mental Health Services, was released as part of ADAA's annual conference, in St. Louis. It involves surveys with 83 schools selected from U.S. News & World Report's 2007 guide to the nation's top national universities and liberal arts colleges.

The survey found that most schools do offer crisis intervention, individual counseling and referrals, but few programs are tailored to the specific needs of students.

Among the report's other findings:

• Almost all respondents reported an increased usage of mental health services over the past three years. Liberal arts colleges reported a higher overall usage rate (an average of 23 percent of students) compared with national universities (13 percent).
• More than one-fifth of schools reported an increase in the number of students seeking treatment at college counseling centers who were already taking psychiatric medications. "This is a problem that I don't think we've ever had on these campuses," Ross said.
• Less than half of responding schools knew how many of their students were seeking treatment for anxiety disorders. Among those that did know, national universities reported about 35 percent requesting treatment for this type of condition vs. 23 percent of liberal arts colleges.

The ADAA believes that availability of mental health services should be a factor when deciding which institution a child is going to attend. "This report will give students and parents additional information to consider when selecting a school," Ross said.

"Our call to action is that it is critical for students to have access to counseling and other mental health services to diagnose and treat anxiety disorders," Ross added. "Many people don't know they have a disease that can be treated. Instead, they suffer silently and don't know where they can get help."

More information

For more on anxiety disorders, visit the Anxiety Disorders Association of America  .

MONDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. doctors are consistently overprescribing antibiotics for sinus infections, a new study finds, but even the physician who led the research doesn't see how the problem can be eliminated.

That's because when it comes to treatments for sinus trouble, antibiotics are the best of a bad lot, said Dr. Donald A. Leopold, chairman of the department of otolaryngology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

"We as physicians don't have very good medications for chronic rhinosinusitis," he said. "The only other drugs in contention are topical steroids, and they are not great. As a group I suggest we are frustrated at not having good drugs. It would be great if we had better medications for this chronic inflammation."

Another factor is what patients demand, Leopold said. "Many patients call up and ask for specific antibiotics," he said. "The patients know these names. They have been marketed to them, so they know the drugs are available. And antibiotics do give some relief."

His team published their findings in the March issue of Archives of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery.

According to the report, two national studies show that Americans made more than 17 million visits to health-care facilities for sinus infection between 1999 and 2002. At least one antibiotic was prescribed in nearly 83 percent of cases of acute rhinosinusitis and in nearly 70 percent of cases of the chronic, longer-running version of the condition, in which symptoms persist for at least 12 weeks.

The problem is that antibiotics are effective only against bacteria, but many sinus infections are due to other causes, such as viral infections, allergies or hormonal changes. The often-repeated standard wisdom is that use of antibiotics in such cases should be avoided to reduce the emergence of dangerous resistant bacterial strains.

But it's hard to preach that wisdom to someone with a drippy, hurting sinus who wants immediate relief, Leopold acknowledged. Because more effective drugs are lacking, "patients are desperate, physicians are desperate, and it is not a happy situation," he said.

Consider the case of the working physician called on to treat such a patient, said Dr. Neil L. Kao, vice chairman of the rhinitis/sinusitis committee of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. He happens to be just such a working physician, in private practice in Greenville, S.C.

There are ways to determine whether a sinus infection is bacterial, Kao said. One is to do endoscopy, running a tube into the nose to obtain a sample of mucus from the sinus. Another is nasal cytology, examining a swab from the lining of the nose. A third is to take an X-ray.

"The problem with all of these is that they are expensive and time-consuming," Kao said. "The differences between symptoms caused by an allergy, bacterial infection, viral infection and a common cold are few. For us, even specialist doctors, when you see someone with acute nasal symptoms, it is hard to tell the cause. And the truth is that most of the people diagnosed with sinusitis go to primary care doctors."

Public awareness about antibiotic resistance is increasing, but most people suffering from cough, drip, lack of sleep and other sinus symptoms are likely to come in demanding an antibiotic, Kao said.

And so the physician often makes the practical choice of giving what the patient wants, with a chance of relief, over the more abstract issue of antibiotic resistance, he said.

More information

For more on sinus infections, head to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FRIDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- A rapid test to help distinguish between viral meningitis and a more severe bacterial form has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Xpert EV test, used in combination with other diagnostics, can help doctors decide on a course of treatment. Meningitis is an infection of the fluid surrounding the spinal cord and brain, and current test results typically take up to a week to obtain, the FDA said. The new test delivers results in about 2 1/2 hours.

People with both forms of meningitis have similar symptoms, including fever, severe headache, stiff neck, nausea, fatigue, confusion and sensitivity to bright light. People with the viral form typically recover within two weeks without treatment, the agency said. But the more dangerous bacterial form, which can lead to brain damage, hearing loss and death, requires medical intervention, including antibiotics.

The Xpert EV test detects the presence of a class of viruses called Enterovirus, which cause about 90 percent of viral meningitis cases, the FDA said.

The test was developed by Cepheid, a company based in Sunnyvale, Calif.

More information

To learn more about meningitis, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.