Two die after overdosing on cold medicine
In this case, they took Coricidin, which contained dextromethorphan - don't forget it's a chemical relative to morphine.
Two die after overdosing on cold medicine
In this case, they took Coricidin, which contained dextromethorphan - don't forget it's a chemical relative to morphine.
I will be on Boston's Sports Station, AM 1510 The Zone, tonight at 7:45pm talking about strokes in athletes. I believe they have streaming audio from their home page.
A man had to wait more than five hours for a doctor to come to his home to certify his wife's death from cancer
"It would have been nice to have her for about an hour just to say goodbye but five-and-a-half hours, well, the body starts to go cold and that's not what anybody wants to remember, especially not my 10-year-old little sister who was with us. It's ...
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Hyperbole: Are COX-2s "Weapons of Mass Destruction"?
Not everyone is happy that the FDA didn't outright ban COX-2s.
From today's Sunday Boston Globe:
One thing Tedy Bruschi and his doctors will have to decide in the next few weeks is whether the Patriots linebacker should take a blood thinner such as cumadin (sic) for a lengthy period, because, if so, his career will be in serious jeopardy. Patients on blood thinners have to be careful about being cut because the blood does not coagulate easily, making it ...
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Tedy Bruschi was discharged from the hospital yesterday. This is wonderful and encouraging news, as he did not need acute rehabiliation and was able to return home. The focus now turns on what can cause a stroke in someone in their early 30s.
90 percent of strokes occur after the age of 55. It has been mentioned previously that some sort of bleeding led to his stroke - ...
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COX-2s are essential for our global war on terrorism?
"Dr. Christopher Grubb, a captain in the Army Medical Corps, said
soldiers in the 82nd Airborne were required to carry a cox-2 drug in
the event of a battlefield injury. Dr. Grubb said the drugs had
allowed many soldiers who otherwise would have been sidelined by pain
to be deployed overseas."
Best wishes to Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) whose wife is in the hospital
She apparently underwent a heart catheterization and electrophysiology study.
The verdict: Celebrex stays
"Experts advising the agency on the future direction of Cox-2 pain drugs, including Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra, voted 31 to 1 to recommend that the drug stay on the market. But the panel has not yet addressed concerns that warnings or restrictions may be required to prevent patients from taking higher doses of the drug."
Probably the right decision. The 200mg a day ...
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The chance for a Vioxx relaunch is "less than 10%"
I'd put it closer to zero percent.
Update:
Guess I was wrong: In a close vote -- 17 to 15 -- a special committee declared Vioxx safe for use among certain patients.
In addition, the committee recommended a ban on consumer advertising.
We'll see how this all shakes out in the next few days. ...
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The final data on Naproxyn was pretty weak after all
"Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic, likened releasing a warning on naproxen to yelling 'fire' in a crowded auditorium. He said he hoped that the medical community could learn from the experience. 'It caused a panic that was unnecessary,' Nissen said, 'and it shouldn't have happened, and I hope it doesn't happen again.'"
I have written in the past ...
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"Doctors are going to make mistakes just like lawyers make mistakes. It happens."
"That's the human side of doing things we do. The sad thing is that people don't believe that doctors should be allowed to make mistakes. Doctors are people too," says a pediatrician in Arizona. You all know that I agree with that statement.
Merck considers putting Vioxx back in drugstores
The FDA will make a decision today about the fate of COX-2s. I would be surprised if Vioxx is reinstated.
As has been reported, Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi has been hospitalized with some kind of intracerebral bleed. As one can imagine, this is big news here in New England.
Here's what we know so far:
Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi will remain hospitalized while he undergoes additional tests after suffering a broken blood vessel in his head, a Patriots team source told The Boston Globe on Thursday.
Bruschi, ...
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Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi hospitalized with headaches
The Patriots linebacker had partial vision loss and paralysis from the news reports. Apparently now he is up walking and talking. This sounds like a transient ischemic attack to me.
Update:
They have reported that he may have "broke a blood vessel in his head". The paralysis has gone.
A Florida psychiatric hospital is accused of inappropriately admitting patients involuntarily to help increase revenue
"In its letter this week, the Department of Children and Families expressed particular concern about the unit's elderly patients. It noted that the unit's admissions among that age group were roughly twice the state average. And it cited numbers showing that most admissions throughout the unit were conducted on an involuntary basis.
Moreover, ...
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A leading breast cancer surgeon who was diagnosed with breast cancer gets ready to return to work
Initial clinical breast exam by her colleagues as well as a mammogram were negative. At her persistance, surgeons found three separate cancers in her breast.
It sounds like Merck is doing its best to take Celebrex and Bextra down with it
"The heart attack and stroke risks linked to withdrawn arthritis drug Vioxx are an inherent problem for similar pain pills, Vioxx maker Merck told advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration."
"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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Past 6 Months
Dear lawmakers: This is what it’s like to be a doctor today
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