Nearly every week, we hear more evidence that American children are over-medicated, especially with drugs that affect mood and behavior. Most recently, a panel of experts has denounced the overuse of Risperdal, a powerful antipsychotic drug, for attention deficit disorder. The drug has too many side effects, including potential development of permanent muscle twitching, to….
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Statins in Every Medicine Cabinet? Patients Need to Read the Numbers
Millions of people with normal cholesterol levels in their blood could be started on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs based on a new research study, but if patients understood the numbers behind the study, they might not move so fast to put statins in their medicine cabinet. Every patient can benefit from a closer understanding of how….
Continue ReadingOnline Anonymous Notification of Sex Partners For STDs
An online service called inSPOT allows patients who test positive for STDs to use a website to notify sexual partners, anonymously if they so choose, of the possibility that the partners were infected. A report done by the San Francisco Department of Public Health finds that since 2004, 30,000 people have used the service to….
Continue ReadingSenator Kennedy’s Health Care and Yours
It is instructive and interesting to read about Senator Edward Kennedy’s treatment for his brain tumor. The linked article describes the change in direction between May 20th of this year, when Kennedy’s brain cancer was first disclosed and surgery was not discussed as a possible treatment, and two weeks later, when neurosurgeons performed a “successful”….
Continue ReadingDoctor-Patient Relationships Turn Sour
Tara Parker-Pope recently had an article on how fewer and fewer patients trust their doctors. About one in four patients feel that their physicians sometimes expose them to unnecessary risk, according to data from a Johns Hopkins study published this year in the journal Medicine. And two recent studies show that whether patients trust a….
Continue ReadingFor Better Medical Care, Bring a Friend
Senior citizens who bring company to their doctor or hospital visits receive better medical care, according to a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Of the 38.6% of elderly patients who brought a companion along on their medical visits, the most common person to bring along was a spouse or an adult….
Continue ReadingNew Project To Help Patients Manage Medical Records
A new project, conceived of by Google and the Cleveland Clinic, will try to give patients the ability to access and control their health information. This project would hopefully enable patients to give their information quickly and easily to multiple physicians and pharmacies. Such a thing would be beneficial because, as we have discussed often….
Continue ReadingScientists Conceal Raw Data from Cancer Studies
Most scientists are extremely unwilling to part with the raw data of the studies they perform on cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. The author of the article speculates that this reluctance is due to convenience and careerism, specifically the fear of having others (especially layfolk) analyze their work and possibly find flaws in it. This….
Continue ReadingMight Full Disclosure of Medical Error be the Best Policy?
The overwhelming majority of hospitals will not admit mistakes to patients if there is little chance of patients finding out, and may not even discuss the mistakes after the patients do find out. Of course, hospitals do this to fend off the threat of lawsuits. Yet Dr. Steven Kramm, former chief of staff at the….
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