Testosterone levels in women decline with age, beginning in the late reproductive years. This can lead to a decrease in sexual desire and satisfaction. However, to date, there are few treatment options for this condition. Most studies and treatment options have focused on combining estrogen and testosterone therapy in postmenopausal women, but now, a study in The New England Journal of Medicine reports that testosterone alone may be appropriate therapy for postmenopausal women experiencing low sexual desire. Read more →

When a new drug is approved and enters the marketplace, often the only safety and efficacy information available is based on a few thousand people who took the drug during strictly controlled clinical trials. Not surprisingly, these trials are designed to focus on the drugs’ benefits, and may not include a large enough sample size to elicit serious adverse effects. Once the drug is available for widespread use, we are able to better evaluate the real safety profile of the drug. Read more →

The cholesterol-lowering drugs collectively known as “statins” are among the top drugs sold in the United States, and worldwide. Although current guidelines only recommend the use of statins for people with elevated cholesterol, there is new evidence that these recommendations should be expanded. The November 20, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine will report the findings of the Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER), which were also reported on November 9 at an American Heart Association Conference in New Orleans. The JUPITER trial studied nearly 18,000 healthy adults without high cholesterol and found that daily therapy with rosuvastatin (Crestor) significantly prevented cardiovascular events. Read more →

In October, the Federal Drug Administration approved lacosamide as add-on therapy for adults with partial seizures. The approval is based on data from multiple phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials involving approximately 1300 people.

The study participants were aged 16 years or older, and experienced between 10 and 17 seizures per month. Patients continued to take 1 to 3 previously prescribed antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) while taking lacosamide in the study. Nearly half of the study participants had tried 7 or more AEDs, and still experienced a lack of seizure control. Read more →

Memantine (Namenda) is approved to treat Alzheimer’s disease, but may also be effective in treating binge eating disorder. A new study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders demonstrates memantine’s effectiveness in a small group of patients with binge eating disorder.

Binge eating is a relatively newly recognized psychiatric disorder that involves recurrent episodes of binge eating without extreme behaviors to lose weight. Binge eating is the most common eating disorder, affecting up to 3% of American adults. It is most often seen in people aged 46 to 55 years. Read more →

The adage of those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it rings as true in medicine as in any other field. Learning from previous patients and past experiences — even mistakes — is the best learning tool in medicine. The treatment and diagnosis of epilepsy is no different, and a new review article published in the quarterly journal Seminars in Neurology evaluates frequent mistakes made in the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of epilepsy and provides practical solutions to optimize patient care. Read more →