Mild to severe depression might be better treated with alternatives to antidepressant drugs, which do not help patients much more than an inactive placebo, researchers said Tuesday.
Combining data from six studies that examined the effectiveness of two commonly prescribed antidepressants — paroxetine and imipramine — found the drugs produced benefits only slightly greater than a placebo in patients with mild to severe depression. Read the rest of this entry »
The World Health Organization is changing its advice on HIV drugs, asking that they be given sooner and to breastfeeding mothers with the virus.
Experts say the advice is based on the most up-to-date information available and will cut infection rates and save lives.
But it will mean many more people needing treatment, which will cost more money and time.
An estimated 33.4 million people are living with HIV/Aids. Read the rest of this entry »
A recently devised method of imaging the chemical communication and warfare between microorganisms could lead to new antibiotics, antifungal, antiviral and anti-cancer drugs, said a Texas AgriLife Research scientist.
“Translating metabolic exchange with imaging mass spectrometry,” was published Nov. 8 in Nature Chemical Biology, a prominent scientific journal. The article describes a technique developed by a collaborative team that includes Dr. Paul Straight, AgriLife Research scientist in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at Texas A&M University in College Station, Dr. Pieter Dorrestein, Yu-Liang Yang and Yuquan Xu, all at the University of California, San Diego. Read the rest of this entry »
It is very important during pregnancy to know which medications cross the placental barrier and can affect your child. Not all medications are created equal, and some can do more harm than good. Antibiotics are good example. Recently a surprising link between two common antibiotics, used to treat urinary tract infections, and birth defects.
Bacterial infections themselves can cause many problems for both mother and fetus if they are left unchecked, so expectant mothers shouldn’t avoid antibiotics entirely. Instead, women should discuss their choices of antibiotics with their doctors. Read the rest of this entry »
Cambridge University study suggests in they study that if a women who have had a fracture are not getting treatment to prevent them having future bone breaks.
An audit covering 1,600 women presenting to a specialist clinic with a fracture showed that 31% had suffered a previous break.
Yet only 28% had been put on recommended bone-protective drugs.
A GPs’ leader said more could be done to find women at risk, but side-effects stopped some patients taking the drugs. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the earliest chemotherapy drugs appears to work against a genetic fault that can trigger bowel and other cancers, UK researchers say.
In laboratory tests methotrexate, first administered in the 1940s, was found to destroy cells containing the damaged MSH2 gene.
This raises the hope of targeted treatments for those whose cancer is driven by the faulty gene.
Patient trials have already begun, EMBO Molecular Medicine reports.
The genetic condition HNPCC leaves people with a propensity to develop certain forms of cancer: some 90% of men and 70% of women will have developed bowel cancer by the time they reach 70. Read the rest of this entry »
