Just in

        Intervention: The Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association is offering a series of group sessions for people diagnosed with early stage irreversible dementia.

        The sessions, limited to seven pairs of patients and caregivers (husband and wife or parent and adult child), will focus on clinical aspects of dementia and planning issues. The Early Stage Strategy Group will meet Sept. 25 through Nov. 13 at Drake Center, 151 W. Galbraith Road.

        Applicants will be interviewed before final participants are chosen.

        Sessions are free. Registration is extremely limited. Information: Clarissa Rentz, 721-4284, Ext.102.

Sitings

        Too darn hot: Need a good excuse to hang out in the air-conditioning? Check out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new Web site on the dangers of extreme heat, www.cdc.gov/nceh/hsb/extremeheat/.

Shelf help

        Drug handbook: Arthritis Medicines A to Z: A Doctor's Guide to Today's Most Commonly Prescribed Arthritis Drugs by pharmacologist and rheumatologist Dr. C. Michael Stein (Three Rivers Press; $14). The guide includes listing for 85 prescription and over-the-counter arthritis medications.

Resources

        Handbook for change: Got questions about menopause? The National Institute on Aging has answers in its new free booklet, Menopause — One Woman's Story, Every Woman's Story: A Resource for Making Health Choices. The book covers symptoms and symptom management, what happens after menopause, hormone replacement therapy and wellness advice. To order, call(800) 222-2225 or write to P.O. Box 8057, Gaithersburg, MD. 20898-8057. The booklet is also availablet www.nih.gov/nia/health/pubs/menopause/. Research

        Brain scan: Anatomic abnormalities in the brain, not emotional stresses, could be the cause of stuttering, a new study says.

        MRI scans of 16 patients with persistent developmental stuttering and 16 control patients found the left and right temporal lobes were significantly larger in the patients who stuttered. Those areas control speech and language.

        Irregularities in the shape of the brain were also much more prevalent among the patients who stuttered.

        The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health, Tulane LSU-General Clinical Research Center and the Department of Veterans Affairs is published in the July 24 issue of Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

        Contact Peggy O'Farrell by phone: 768-8510; fax, 768-8330; e-mail, pofarrell@enquirer.com.

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