by Michael Smith
If you look at the world map, the shapes of South America and Africa look as though they should fit together. Maybe they were once together and then drifted apart.
That theory was first put forward in the late 1500s by a Dutch map maker, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that the discovery of plate tectonics finally put the idea on a — well, …
Flu may be associated with seasonal deficiency of vitamin D
by Todd Neale
Editors of medical journals should unite in requiring independent statistical analyses of industry-sponsored clinical trials, according to the two top editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Such a measure would help prevent any inappropriate influence from the study sponsors on data analysis and reporting, wrote Catherine DeAngelis, MD, MPH, editor-in-chief of JAMA, and Phil Fontanarosa, MD, MBA, executive deputy editor …
Statistical analysis in medical journals should be unbiased
In the Academy Award winning film, Precious, the main character’s transformation comes about largely through her ability to tell the story of her trauma, specifically in the form of writing. In this endeavor she is encouraged by a loving teacher.
In the book History Beyond Trauma, two French psychoanalysts argue that symptoms their patients exhibit represent the horrors of war that are not spoken of, sometimes for generations. The patient is …
Children who are traumatized need more than medication
I want to touch on what is probably the hottest topic in psychiatry: whether psychologists should obtain prescription privileges. This is topical because Oregon just overwhelmingly passed a law authorizing prescriptive privileges for psychologists, although it is unclear whether the governor will sign the bill.
I endorse psychologists prescribing, and here’s why: it would be the single best thing that could happen to psychiatry.
Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous, but …
Psychiatry benefits when psychologists prescribe drugs
by Nancy Walsh
Children who are irritable or disobedient, or who steal or bully others, are at risk for chronic pain in middle age, a large prospective study found.
Youngsters who had persistent behavior problems at ages seven, 11, and 16 years had more than twice the risk of widespread chronic pain at age 45 as other children (RR 2.14, 95% CI 1.43 to 3.21), according to Dong Pang, PhD, of the …
Chronic pain patients may have been disobedient children
by John Fauber
For nearly a decade, Paula Oertel’s brain tumor was kept at bay by a drug that was not approved to treat her condition. Then Oertel did something she never imagined would jeopardize her health.
She moved — less than 30 miles — from one county in Wisconsin to another.
That move triggered a review of her health insurance from Medicare, which eventually led to a loss of coverage, including …
Medicare denies a brain tumor drug after a patient moves
by Michael Kirsch, MD
First, let me state unequivocally that I am against all varieties of pain, foreign and domestic. Indeed, I wish that we could snuff the varmint out every time and place it surfaces. Pain is a wily opponent that can be difficult to vanquish. In recent years, physicians have been resorting to a ‘shock and awe’ strategy of using excessive force against it.
While this may be sound military …
Pain management depends too heavily on narcotics
by Todd Neale
Children whose parents refuse vaccinations for them provide fertile ground for the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, an investigation of a 2008 measles outbreak in San Diego demonstrated.
Although the rate of two-dose immunization against measles was 95% in the area, a single case of measles from a 7-year-old child returning from overseas sparked an outbreak that exposed 839 people and sickened 11 other children, according to David Sugerman, …
Children whose parents refuse vaccination may spread measles
Originally published in MedPage Today
by John Fauber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today Reporter
When looking for a doctor to travel the country to promote its prescription fish oil product, a leading pharmaceutical company looked to a small-town community doctor rather than an academic heavyweight.
Its choice was a Delafield, Wis., primary care physician and clinical lipidologist who entered private practice in 2001.
For speaking …
Drug companies are using community doctors for dinner talks
Oxycontin is an oral pain medication that contains the single active ingredient oxycodone. Oxycodone is one of the most potent of the oral opiates, and has more euphoric effect than many other opiate analgesics.
Oxycontin is the most notorious prescription drug of abuse in the US, and for good reason. Though marketed as a sustained release medication, as much as 30% of the medication is absorbed immediately and the rest absorbed …
Oxycontin should be prescribed less often by doctors
Whether we like it or not, the lines between allopathic and alternative medicine continue to blur. Just last week I recommended glucosamine-chondroitin to a patient who suffers from osteoarthritis and wrote a prescription for Lovaza, a prescription-strength preparation of fish oil. And today I was asked about red yeast rice from a patient interested in controlling her cholesterol through “natural means.”
Like nutrition, complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, is somewhat …
Allopathic medicine has alternative medicine roots
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Earlier this year, Harvard’s Partners Healthcare put a cap on payments its physicians can receive for serving on corporate boards at $5,000 a day.
Although the cap primarily affects top researchers and executives, it is by far the stiffest limit imposed by any academic medical center, and drives deeper the …
Industry relationships with physicians are coming under fire
Middle age introduces itself in many ways; one is atrial fibrillation. Youth, vigor and a medically-problem free life was seemingly right there in the recent past. A rhythm doctor often hears this suddenness of onset described as “Doc, yesterday, I was fine.” As is always the case for a first episode of an arrhythmia, yesterday, you were fine, but today is indeed a new day.
It happened during a bike ride. …
Atrial fibrillation as experienced by an electrophysiologist
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Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Even though 90% of parents believe vaccines protect their children against disease, many are also concerned about potential adverse effects, a new survey found.
More than half of survey respondents said they were concerned about vaccine safety profiles, particularly for newer immunizations, Gary L. Freed, MD, MPH, of the University …
Vaccine safety still concerns parents
Avandia continues to dominate cardiovascular-related news this week. Recently, the AHA and the ACC issued a highly detailed, thoughtful, though perhaps slightly over-diplomatic science advisory on TZDs and CV risk. Taking a completely opposite tack, GSK, in no mood to take prisoners, and apparently about to nominate itself for a Nobel Prize, issued a 30 page White Paper in response to the Senate report published on Saturday.
At the core …
Why rosiglitazone would not have been approved today
Originally published in MedPage Today
by John Gever, MedPage Today Senior Editor
The placebo effect is a real and therapeutic psychological phenomenon that, with more research, could be exploited more systematically in medical practice, said Australian researchers.
“There is not one placebo effect, but many,” wrote Damien Finniss, MSc, of the University of Sydney in Australia, and colleagues in the Feb. 20 …
Placebo effect ethics in medical treatment
At 3am on Jan 1st 2010 my cousin-brother stubbed his last cigarette. New Year’s resolutions to quit smoking, lose weight, or change another bad habit are certainly not uncommon. Having tried — and failed — to quit a number of times before, my cousin took a bold, new approach to quitting. Whether a cleverly devised plan, or just a whim, he decided to post his quitting on Facebook.
On January 4th, …
Quit smoking by using Facebook
Carolyn Riley’s act of giving her daughter Rebecca an overdose of prescribed medication may have been the immediate cause of Rebecca’s death, the conclusion reached by the jury that convicted her of murder.
Even if, as the prosecutor argued, Carolyn and her husband concocted symptoms of mental illness and the psychiatrist, who diagnosed bipolar disorder, was a gullible enabler, the real guilty party in this story is, in my opinion, …
Bipolar disorder and how Rebecca Riley could have been saved
Originally published in MedPage Today
An immediate-release form of the antidiabetic agent metformin has a dead fish odor that may cause patients to stop taking the drug, clinicians warned.
Metformin is known to cause adverse gastrointestinal effects such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, flatulence, distention, and abdominal pain. Those side effects “often necessitate discontinuing the drug,” a group of physicians and pharmacists …
Your metformin may smell like dead fish
Originally published in HCPLive.com
In January, New Jersey became the 14th state in the nation to legalize marijuana use for certain chronic illnesses. Other states where the use of medical marijuana is permitted include Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington; around a dozen more states are weighing pending bills.
The New Jersey …
Medical marijuana has doctors asking questions
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