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CARPAL CONUNDRUM For long-term relief from the painful wrist condition called carpal-tunnel syndrome, do you go for surgery or stick to the support of less-invasive wrist splints? Go for the knife, suggests a study of 176 patients, half of whom underwent surgery and half of whom wore splints. After three months, 80% of the surgery group showed improvement, in contrast to 54% of those who wore splints. After 18 months, 90% of the surgery patients had improved — and 41% of the others had opted for the operation.

HRT UPDATE Hormone replacement therapy seems to raise the risk of breast cancer, but there may be a silver lining: HRT users appear to survive breast cancer longer than women who never took hormones. In a study of 292 postmenopausal women, 92% of the HRT group were still alive six years after diagnosis, vs. 80% of nonusers.

WIVES OF BOOZERS What do the women who marry alcoholics have in common? Researchers interviewed 327 women and found that the wives of problem drinkers are less likely to be homemakers, more likely to use drugs and more likely to smoke cigarettes than women married to nonalcoholics. What is not clear is whether these women drive their husbands to drink or are drawn to drinkers.

Sources: Archives of Surgery; JAMA; Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research