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Easing agonising deaths of terminally ill babies "tantamount to euthanasia"

A doctor in Scotland who gave a paralysing drug to two terminally ill babies, has told a General Medical Council (GMC) panel he felt the children were suffering.

10 Jul 2007

Use of sleeping pills in hospital leads to dependence for many seniors

A new study has produced some worrying results regarding the use of sleeping pills in the elderly.

10 Jul 2007

Drug costs cut in Norway following new rule on prescribing

Research in Norway has shown that there have been substantial savings in drug costs since the introduction of a regulation requiring doctors to prescribe the recommended first-line treatment for hypertension (high blood pressure).

9 Jul 2007

Antidepressants lower the risk of suicide attempt in adults with depression

All age groups of depressed patients who received selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors -- the most commonly prescribed antidepressant medication -- showed a significantly lower risk of suicide attempt when compared to those who did not receive antidepressant treatment.

9 Jul 2007

Olive-pomace oil slows down AIDS

Olive oil has become part of the fight against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) - the cause of AIDS - thanks to the research carried out by the Bionat team, from the University of Granada, headed by Prof. Andres Garcia-Granados, senior lecturer in Organic Chemistry.

9 Jul 2007

New criteria for probable Alzheimer's disease

An international group of Alzheimer's disease (AD) experts have proposed new criteria for the reasearch diagnosis of the condition, as they argue the existing criteria are out of date due to unprecedented growth of scientific knowledge in the field. The proposal is put forward in a Position Paper published early Online and in the August edition of The Lancet Neurology.

9 Jul 2007

Roche and Alnylam form RNAi therapeutics alliance

Roche and the US-based biopharmaceutical company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a major alliance in which Roche obtains a non-exclusive license to Alnylam's technology platform for developing RNAi (RNA interference) therapeutics.

9 Jul 2007

QRISK score more accurate than Framingham or ASSIGN for heart attacks

A new score for predicting the risk of heart disease gives a more accurate measure of how many UK adults are at risk of developing the disease and which adults are most likely to benefit from treatment.

9 Jul 2007

Leading-edge treatment for Crohn's disease at Pediatric Infusion Center

Seventeen-year-old Eliot Drieband explains what it's like to have Crohn's disease - a type of inflammatory bowel disease - in the same matter-of-fact way she describes preparing for an advanced placement exam, working on the school newspaper, starting an organ donor awareness club for teens and being a peer counselor for other kids facing chronic, life-altering illnesses.

9 Jul 2007

Include children in research to make breakthroughs in child medicine

Scientists will only make real breakthroughs in children's medicine if they include children in research programmes as well as adults, according to a leading paediatric expert.

9 Jul 2007

High-risk patients need improved guidance on heart attacks

Varying advice means patients at high-risk of having a heart attack are unclear about when symptoms are potentially life threatening and when they should call an ambulance, argue a group of heart specialists in this week's BMJ.

9 Jul 2007

Warning on Chikungunya virus

Fever, arthritis, and other symptoms occurring in people to who have recently traveled to islands in the Indian Ocean may signal infection with an imported virus called "chikungunya," reports a study in the May/June issue of the journal Medicine, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

9 Jul 2007

Orlistat weight loss drug points to new cancer treatments

Based on their surprising discovery that an obesity drug can kill cancer cells, scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have made a new finding about the drug's effects and are working to design more potent cancer treatments.

9 Jul 2007

New minimally invasive method of treating cancer

A team of biomedical engineers at Virginia Tech and the University of California at Berkeley has developed a new minimally invasive method of treating cancer, and they anticipate clinical trials on individuals with prostate cancer will begin soon.

9 Jul 2007

Cancer risk in HIV, transplant patients

HIV/AIDS and kidney transplant patients are at much greater risk of contracting 20 different types of cancer than the general population, according to a land mark paper in The Lancet.

8 Jul 2007

New score for predicting the risk of heart disease

A new score for predicting the risk of heart disease gives a more accurate measure of how many UK adults are at risk of developing the disease - and which adults are most likely to benefit from treatment.

8 Jul 2007

Pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV infection

Clinical trials of pre-exposure prophylaxis - that is giving anti-retroviral drugs to non-HIV-infected individuals to prevent them becoming infected - are exploring whether the approach could lead to a large decrease in transmission of the virus with few or no side effects.

8 Jul 2007

Rimonabant may prevent and treat obesity-related liver disease

A new study on the effect of the anti-obesity drug rimonabant on liver function in obese rats found that it reduced markers of liver damage, decreased levels of pro-inflammatory proteins, and improved lipid profiles.

4 Jul 2007

Antidepressant warnings linked to decreased prescription rates among children

Regulatory warnings regarding the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors appear to be associated with reductions in the number of antidepressant medication prescriptions among children and adolescents covered by Tennessee's expanded Medicaid program, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

4 Jul 2007

Antidepressants not linked to birth defects

Two research studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine found taking SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), anti-depression drugs, during pregnancy did not significantly increase the overall risk for most birth defects.

4 Jul 2007