Drugs & Clinical Trials Category

Drugs & Clinical Trials | By March 18, 2008 | By Dan Abshear | 2 Comments

Medicine Deception: Uncovering the Facts

Here, I present just two of the many possible “unknowns” about the medications that are prescribed by health care providers:

1. The FDA requires two studies to show that a medication that is awaiting approval from the FDA is superior to a placebo — not exactly the best measurement of efficacy or the best reassurance that a patient is receiving the best medicinal treatment to restore their health. Equally surprising is that a pharmaceutical company that is attempting to approve such a medication has no limit as to the number of studies it can conduct to produce these two studies required. Read more →

Publication Bias in Reporting Drug Efficacy | February 18, 2008 | 4 Comments

Most of us rely on the pharmaceutical industry to some extent for our health and well-being, whether it’s for an occasional round of antibiotics, a flu vaccination, or medication regularly taken for a chronic condition. The industry is regularly under fire for inflating drug prices, misleading... Read more →

When Experimental Drugs May Be the Only Hope | February 01, 2008 | 2 Comments

While the treatment options available for fatal diseases have expanded greatly in recent years, many patients do not respond to conventional therapy and are left with no therapeutic options. As an example, despite the millions of dollars that are poured into investigational research each year, cancer... Read more →

Ethnic Medicine - Beyond Bidil | September 21, 2007 | 0 Comments

While Bidil’s patent for general use runs out in 2007, its FDA approval for “selective” use on people of African origin runs out in 2020. Despite being hailed by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2005 as a step towards the “promise of personalized medicine,” the question... Read more →

The Kampo boom, traditional Japanese phytotherapy comes of age | August 26, 2007 | 0 Comments

Of the many ancient holistic medical systems that have withstood the test of time, Kampo is one of the more successful ones, particularly in Japan. In a nationwide study of Japanese mainstream medical practitioners performed in October 2000, 72 percent regularly used Kampo medicines. Today, nearly 150... Read more →

Researchers Say “No-No” to the Thought of Painkillers Preventing Alzheimer’s | April 30, 2007 | 2 Comments

Two new studies, first appeared in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), while the second published in the latest issue of the Neurology journal disputed the belief that commonly used painkillers help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. The first study in BMJ looked at over 6,000 women. The other in Neurology... Read more →

Give a Clinical Trial a Try: It’ll Probably Cost Nothing | April 18, 2007 | 1 Comment

If you’re looking for a different approach to a mental health concern, a clinical trial may be a good fit for you. Clinical trials, where new drugs and treatments are tested, are an important step in the study and treatment of mental health disorders. At any given time, thousands of trials go... Read more →

Researching Drug Interventions in Bipolar Offspring: Current Ongoing Research | July 23, 2006 | 4 Comments

Last August, at the Stanford University Medical Center, Packard Research findings reported additional research on drug therapy for juveniles predisposed to bipolar disorder. They had found that children with psychiatric problems - who appear to be at high risk for bipolar disorder - already had done... Read more →