by Crystal Phend, MedPage Today Senior Staff Writer
The pandemic H1N1 influenza virus continues to disproportionately attack the young, the CDC warned.
Children and adults under age 25 have accounted for 53% of hospitalizations for laboratory-confirmed H1N1 and 23.6% of related deaths since Sept. 1, the agency reported at a press briefing.
Seniors, on the other hand, have accounted for just 7% of …
This is why children need the H1N1 flu vaccine
by Roberta Friedman, PhD
Banning pharmaceutical companies from handing out token items to doctors at conferences is so tip of the iceberg.
I have tales to tell of conferences past, where the excesses were beyond farcical. As a medical reporter covering such meetings, I have seen everything. When my kids were young, I enjoyed roaming the floor of the exhibit hall along with the docs, collecting such swag as bouncy balls that …
Have drug companies really curbed gifts to doctors at medical conferences?
Originally published in HCPLive.com
by Anita Ramsetty, MD
We are very fortunate to have a number of newer insulins available for our patients.
For years we had animal insulins only. NPH and Regular, then we had Ultralente. The development of analog insulins marked the upswing in technology that we would sustain for a period of time. The most recent big blip in the …
Is the newest, long-lasting insulin necessarily the best?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Here’s a case where texting may actually improve a teenager’s health: Text message reminders appear to be effective in getting young liver transplant patients to take their immunosuppressive medications, a small study showed.
In 41 patients with a median age of 15, there was a significant improvement in medication compliance …
Texting young liver transplant patients to take their medications
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Most patients who underwent extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for respiratory failure survived their struggle with pandemic H1N1 flu, according to a study by researchers from Australia and New Zealand.
Of the 68 patients treated with ECMO during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, 54 were still alive as of Sept. 7, according to …
One way to treat patients with severe H1N1 flu
Take a look at the screen shot below, from Pfizer’s homepage. Believe it or not, I, or anyone else, can now leave comments “on” any website (such as Pfizer.com) using a new tool (currently in beta) from Google, called Sidewiki.
Game-changer? You bet.
While the use of Google’s Sidewiki has ramifications across the entire web, for every type of site or industry, I’m going …
How Google Sidewiki will impact drug company websites
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 …
Can ventilating patients spread H1N1 flu in hospitals?
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 …
The alternative, complementary, and integrative health obsession with toxins
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 …
Is a cocaine abuse vaccine coming soon?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Contrary to information that led the FDA and other regulatory agencies to release warnings about varenicline (Chantix), a new study has found “no clear evidence” of a relationship between the risk of suicide and the smoking-cessation drug.
Both varenicline and bupropion (Zyban), another drug used in smoking cessation programs, were …
Does Chantix increase suicide risk?
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 …
Flu and H1N1 influenza vaccine recommendations for doctors and health care workers
Recently, a former staff medical writer at a MECC (Medical Education Communication Company) anonymously alerted me to a particularly sleazy advertising tactic used by a medical writing company. This person had worked as a pharma-supported medical writer for several years, but recently quit because, “I really couldn’t stomach the ethical problems associated with writing for the pharma industry.” Recently, looking for medical writing jobs, this writer came across a company …
Medical ghost-writing influences doctors to prescribe more drugs
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 …
Are hospice doctors relying too much on symptom scores to assess pain?
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by Diana Lee
A recent episode of the A&E show Intervention about a woman with occasional migraines and other serious health problems who takes up to 50 Percocet pills a day made me uncomfortable. Maybe Danielle, the woman featured in the episode, really does have migraine attacks. But she is also an addict. One condition really has nothing to do with the other. Many people with acute or chronic pain use …
Migraines and the stigma of chronic pain medication use
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 …
Is the flu a heart attack risk factor?
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 will the H1N1 vaccine be distributed to patients?
by Cole Petrochko, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Don’t wait for the pandemic H1N1 vaccine to become available before getting an inoculation for seasonal flu, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases warned.
Putting off routine flu shots in hopes of one-stop-shopping would defeat the primary line of defense against a proven threat, according to a panel representing some of the nation’s …
Don’t wait for the H1N1 vaccine before you get your flu shot
by Michael Kirsch, MD
Consider this hypothetical vignette. Tiger Woods accepts my challenge to play 18 holes. Obviously, the gallery would be packed with golf enthusiasts who would cancel job interviews, vacations and even worship services in order to witness this historic competition. Spectators would be permitted to place bets at even money. Perhaps, my mother would bet on me, but no other sane person would. They would properly conclude that …
What does Tiger Woods have to do with medical futility and end-of-life care?
Ghostwritten clinical papers. Off-label marketing. Channel-stuffing. Hiding of negative data.
Pharma companies have earned a hefty percentage of the opprobrium heaped on them by a skeptical public. And it’s mainly because of a failure to heed the Golden Rule. We all know the “classical” Golden Rule: Treat others the way you’d wish to be treated. But in so many cases, drug manufacturers seem to adhere to a different version: the Gold-in …
Drug company ethics and the pharmaceutical industry’s pursuit of profit
Recent reports have said that Michael Jackson died from a propofol overdose. Is that really the case?
Here’s what happened, according to the published timeline.
— At about 1:30 a.m., [Dr. Conrad] Murray gave Jackson 10 mg of Valium.
— At about 2 a.m., he injected Jackson with 2 mg of the anti-anxiety drug Ativan.
— At about 3 a.m., Murray then administered 2 mg of the sedative Versed.
— At about 5 …
Michael Jackson dead from propofol, is Dr. Conrad Murray solely to blame?
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