Conditions and Diseases

Physicians writing on KevinMD about the diseases they treat and the people who have them: cancer and its screening arguments, pain and the drugs that treat it, diabetes and the obesity argument, mental illness and who gets treated for it, and the decisions at the end of a life. Five maintained records draw on this archive: Cancer: what physicians say, in their own words, Opioids: what physicians and pain patients say, in their own words, End of life: what physicians say, in their own words, Diabetes and obesity: what physicians say, in their own words, and Mental health: what psychiatrists and physicians say, in their own words.

Should medical journals use the term nauseous, nauseated, or nauseating?

Kevin

October 14, 2009

by Phil Sefton

Writers and editors rushing to meet deadlines know the feeling. The effects of stress, a few too many cups of coffee, and perhaps a candy bar or bag of chips in place of a meal can conspire to make the most steely-nerved wordsmith feel a tad nauseated. Or is it nauseous? And what of that stress, that coffee, that ill-chosen meal replacement—are its effects nauseating or nauseous?

Grammarians with …

How H1N1 pandemic flu will affect intensive care units

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

October 14, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent

The winter wave of the pandemic H1N1 flu hit intensive care units in Australia and New Zealand hard, researchers said, and may offer lessons for doctors bracing for the pandemic’s return to the Northern Hemisphere.

All told, 722 people with confirmed pandemic flu were admitted to one of the …

Will riding in a convertible harm your hearing?

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

October 10, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Ed Susman, MedPage Today Contributing Writer

Cruising down the highway in a sleek convertible, with the wind blowing in your hair, may sound like the ideal road trip — but it could harm your hearing, British scientists said.

In a study conducted on the high-speed motorways of the U.K., doctors found that at highway speeds, …

Can ventilating patients spread H1N1 flu in hospitals?

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

October 9, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Crystal Phend, MedPage Today Senior Staff Writer

Plumes of virus-laden air shooting out from the masks of patients undergoing noninvasive ventilation could put healthcare workers at increased risk for infectious diseases such as the pandemic H1N1 (swine) flu, researchers said.

A positive-pressure ventilation mask on a simulated patient yielded a jet of exhaled air extending …

The alternative, complementary, and integrative health obsession with toxins

Amy Tuteur, MD

Conditions and Diseases

October 8, 2009

Everything old is new again and that is certainly true in the world of “alternative” health. One of the axiomatic premises of contemporary “alternative” health puts its believers behind the times … by approximately 500 years.

A fundamental premise held by believers in “alternative” health is that we are swimming in a world of “toxins” and those “toxins” are causing disease. Like most premises in “alternative” health it has no basis …

Is a cocaine abuse vaccine coming soon?

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

October 7, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent

A vaccine against cocaine was effective in nearly 40% of users of the drug, researchers said.

In a randomized, placebo-controlled study, volunteers who reached a high level of antibodies after vaccination used less cocaine than those whose response was lower, according to Thomas Kosten, MD, of Baylor College …

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Is a cocaine abuse vaccine coming soon?

Flu and H1N1 influenza vaccine recommendations for doctors and health care workers

American College of Physicians

Conditions and Diseases

October 5, 2009

The following is part of a series of original guest columns by the American College of Physicians.

by Steven Weinberger, MD, FACP

In the Fall of 2009, we physicians should perhaps change the Biblical phrase, “Physician, heal thyself” to “Physician, immunize thyself” and then follow the phrase twice – once for seasonal influenza and once for H1N1. To date, physicians and other health care workers have too often been lax …

Did the 1918 flu pandemic increase the risk of heart disease?

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

October 5, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent

Men who were in utero during the peak of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic were at increased risk of heart disease when they reached their 60s, 70s, and 80s, researchers said.

In those men, the rate of heart disease was more than 23% higher than among those whose mothers …

Not all doctors discuss the risks and benefits of prostate cancer screening to patients

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

October 2, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer

Men might not be getting the information they need to make an educated decision about prostate cancer screening, two new studies suggest.

Among 375 men surveyed by telephone, only 69.9% had discussed a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test with their physician before making a decision about screening, according to the …

Informed consent is central to the doctor-patient relationship

Dr. Martin Young

Conditions and Diseases

October 1, 2009

The doctor-patient relationship must remain the central focus of good health care. Diminish or hinder that relationship, and no technological advance, funding system, or government intervention in the world will be able to compensate. Many complaints about present health care systems can be seen as evidence of relationship dysfunction, not in the least due to the interference of third parties, administrators, payers and insurers, who wield the financial clout. Transparency …

Are hospice doctors relying too much on symptom scores to assess pain?

Eric Widera, MD

Conditions and Diseases

September 29, 2009

A recent issue in The Lancet included an article entitled “The Death of Ivan Ilyich and pain relief at the end of life.” This is a thought provoking article focused on the question of whether there is overuse of pharmaceuticals to treat various forms of suffering in hospice and palliative medicine.

The authors argue that a good death, as seen through their interpretation of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, may include …

What’s the latest on prostate cancer and the PSA screening test?

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

September 28, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Chris Emery, MedPage Today Contributing Writer

Prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests may lead to unnecessary treatment of healthy men for prostate cancer, and there is little evidence supporting the common but controversial test for routine cancer screening, two new studies found.

Measurements of blood concentrations of PSA failed to predict cancer with the accuracy generally …

Should letting a premature infant die be considered health care rationing?

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

September 27, 2009

by an anonymous NICU nurse

There is a medical controversy brewing over in England that is threatening to invade the United States. Ms. Capewell, a 23-year old British mother, is claiming English doctors let her 21 5/7 week infant die, only because they were following national perinatal guidelines.

If only he was born at 22 weeks, she insists, they would have tried everything to save him and admitted him to the …

Is the seasonal flu vaccine associated with H1N1 pandemic influenza?

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

September 26, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent

In unpublished data, Canadian researchers have suggested that seasonal flu vaccination may increase the risk of catching the H1N1 pandemic strain, but such a pattern has not been found in the U.S., the CDC said.

The Canadian data appear to suggest that people who had been vaccinated against …

Radiologists and communicating mammogram results to patients and their doctors

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

September 24, 2009

by an anonymous radiologist

I recently read the article and comments on this link from this post, concerning radiologists, from Musings of a Dinosaur.

I was disturbed to discover the animosity with which this topic is covered. The tenor of the blog is that radiologists are greedy, self-serving and are out to erode the doctor-patient relationship. The suggestion that radiologists would schedule percutaneous breast biopsies for their financial enhancement is both …

Is medical technology making doctors less relevant?

Edwin Leap, MD

Conditions and Diseases

September 23, 2009

It happens over and over. I call a surgeon about a patient with abdominal pain.

‘Well, what’s the white count?’

‘Normal.’

‘Did you get a CT Scan?’

‘Yes, and it was normal. But they just look uncomfortable.’

‘Sounds like nothing for me to do. Call the hospitalist.’

It happens in other specialties. Cardiologists who aren’t interested in a patient with a normal stress test, pediatricians unimpressed with negative chest x-rays and normal labs. ENT’s unconcerned if …

How to protect yourself from abdominal aortic aneurysms

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

September 22, 2009

by Mark Adelman, MD

While diseases like prostate cancer and heart disease have become household concerns, abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), the 10th leading cause of death in men age 55 and older, have been overshadowed by more prominent diseases for far too long. It’s time we pull back the curtain and take a closer look at this serious disease and how it can be both detected and prevented.

An AAA, which …

Is the flu a heart attack risk factor?

MedPage Today

Conditions and Diseases

September 22, 2009

by Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Flu appears to act as a trigger for myocardial infarction and cardiovascular death, a review of the literature showed.

All observational studies included in the review found an association between times when influenza viruses were circulating and increases in cardiovascular death, according to Charlotte Warren-Gash, MBChB, of University College London, and colleagues.

There was …

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Is the flu a heart attack risk factor?

How will the H1N1 vaccine be distributed to patients?

MedPage Today

Conditions and Diseases

September 21, 2009

by Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today

A minimum of 3.4 million doses of vaccine against H1N1 pandemic flu will be available in the first week of October, the CDC said.

Those doses — all in the form of a live attenuated nasal spray vaccine — may be supplemented by some injectable vaccine, according to Jay Butler, MD, the …

How long are you contagious after being infected with H1N1 influenza?

MedPage Today

Conditions and Diseases

September 16, 2009

by Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today

People infected with the H1N1 pandemic flu strain continue to shed virus after the point where current recommendations say they can go back to work or school, two studies here suggested.

The question, experts said, is whether those people are still contagious and whether a longer stay-at-home period would prevent enough additional …