In recent years, there’s been a resurgence of interest in placebos. Not the kind that are used to minimize bias in clinical trials, but the kind that doctors knowingly give to patients.

In a recent survey of more than 200 doctors practicing in academic medical centers, 45% reported that they had given placebos to patients in the course of providing clinical care. Nearly all the physicians surveyed agreed with the statement that “placebos have therapeutic effects,” and the condition for which they believed placebos offered the most psychological and physiological benefit was pain. Read more →

Since the virus was first detected in Guangdong Province, China in 1996, H5N1 (Bird Flu) has received much attention as the fear of a global spread of the disease mounted. Initially, H5N1 was considered merely interesting; however, alarm bells began to ring when it spread through live-poultry markets in Hong Kong, and eventually to humans, in 1997. The virus killed 6 of 18 infected people.

Now, a published clinical trial of a whole-virus H5N1 vaccine derived from a cell culture raises new hopes for a vaccine against the deadly virus. Read more →

I’m never surprised at the power big pharma has over the media, especially media directed at physicians. For once, I’d like to talk back. Here’s a perfect opportunity! I’m going to talk back at an article recently posted to MedScape.com — a source of very informative, thoughtful, brainwashing, and useful information for physicians. This article is about individualizing adult ADD treatment:

To review the latest clinical thinking in this field, Medscape’s Randall F. White, MD, spoke with Richard H. Weisler, MD. Dr. Weisler, a busy clinician and researcher, is adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

Read more →

If you’re interested in drug treatment or social policy, here’s a helpful resource and recent statistics regarding drug dependence. It is a report that tells us how many people become dependent, and are still dependent, two years after their first exposure to a particular drug.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) surveyed people who had used a drug for the first time between 13 to 24 months prior, and calls them “year-before-last-initiates.” In other words, it tells us how many of these initiates are currently dependent on the drug (and, of course, this includes alcohol). Read more →

We often see advertisements on television for some type of medication — usually one involved in a large-market disease and the commercial is sponsored by a big pharmaceutical company. This is called direct to consumer (DTC) advertising, and doctors would prefer they did not exist.

Since 1997, when the FDA relaxed regulations regarding this form of advertising, the popularity of these commercials greatly increased. Now, the pharmaceutical industry spends around $5 billion annually on this gigantic media effort. Normally, the commercial airs within a year of the drug’s approval, which raises safety concerns and involves money spent that could be applied to greater uses, according to many. But, we are dealing with a corporation here. Read more →

The American Heart Association wants doctors to do an electrocardiogram (EKG) — a measure of heart health — in order to determine whether a child is fit to take stimulant medication for attention deficit disorder (ADD). The AHA recently published this statement online. It says there are conditions that a typical physical exam might not pick up, but that would contraindicate the use of these medications. Read more →