Strange behaviour blamed on sleeping pills
Reports of some very strange behavior by insomniacs taking a prescribed sleeping pill have been of concern and have raised safety questions about insomnia medications.
Much of the concern is centered around a class of drugs called sedative/hypnotics or sleep medications.
Zolpidem (Ambien) is one such medication and it affects chemicals in the brain that may become unbalanced; it is called a called central nervous system (CNS) depressant because it slows down the nervous system.
Phone counseling helps smokers quit
The more help that smokers get, the easier it is for them to quit, a new study shows.
“It’s all about trying to make the whole process more convenient for people,” Dr. Lawrence C. An of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Reuters Health. The current study, involving a group of veterans, demonstrates that standard medical care for smoking cessation is generally not enough, he added.
“Nobody expects a doctor to cure a patient with diabetes and hypertension in one visit,” An said. “That tends to be the way the health care system has dealt with smoking, and we’re really trying to change that.”
Two men still critically ill after UK drug trial
Two men in intensive care after taking part in a clinical trial remain critically ill and are unlikely to make any early improvement, their doctor said on Thursday.
Six men were taken ill during the trial in London to test a drug designed to treat chronic inflammatory conditions and leukemia.
Four are in serious condition but have shown signs of improvement.
Protein complex in brain may be key to Alzheimer’s
Scientists in the U.S. say they have discovered a substance in the brain of mice that causes memory loss; they believe the discovery gives drug developers a target for creating drugs to treat memory loss in people with dementia.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis and the VA Medical Center, by using genetically engineered mice that showed early signs of memory loss and had no plaques or nerve cell loss in the brain, discovered a form of the amyloid-beta protein that is distinct from plaques.
Once extracted and purified, the newly found protein complex was injected into healthy rats and it triggered cognitive impairment in the tested animals, confirming the detrimental effect of this protein on memory.
Russia says bird flu may hit U.S. in autumn, mutate
The deadly bird flu virus, which has hit Asia, Europe and Africa, may spread to the United States late this year and risks mutating dangerously there, Russia’s top animal and plant health inspector said on Thursday.
“We think that H5N1 (strain of bird flu virus) will reach the United States in autumn,” Sergei Dankvert told Reuters.
“This is very realistic. We may be almost certain this will happen after this strain is found in Great Britain, before autumn, as migrating birds will carry it to the United States from there.”
Bush picks von Eschenbach as FDA chief
President George W. Bush on Wednesday picked physician and cancer survivor Andrew von Eschenbach as head of the Food and Drug Administration.
But the nomination of the current acting FDA chief quickly became embroiled in a debate over the long delays in the FDA’s decision-making on access to emergency contraception without a prescription.
Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Patty Murray of Washington announced they plan to put a hold on von Eschenbach’s nomination until the FDA makes a decision on a pending request for approval of the Plan B emergency contraceptive.
Hot pepper kills prostate cancer cells in study
Capsaicin, which makes peppers hot, can cause prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, U.S. and Japanese researchers said on Wednesday.
Capsaicin led 80 percent of human prostate cancer cells growing in mice to commit suicide in a process known as apoptosis, the researchers said.
Prostate cancer tumors in mice fed capsaicin were about one-fifth the size of tumors in untreated mice, they reported in the journal Cancer Research.
Study Finds Pathological Gambling Runs In Families
Problem gambling runs in families according to a University of Iowa study published online Feb. 24 in the journal Psychiatry Research. The study also found an excess of alcoholism, drug disorders and antisocial personality disorder in families with pathological gamblers.
This is the first study of its kind to include detailed family interviews of relatives of persons with pathological gambling, said Donald W. Black, M.D., professor of psychiatry in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
“Something is being passed along in these families that increases the persons’ likelihood of engaging in impulsive and ultimately self-destructive behavior. In some persons, it manifests as substance abuse, in others as antisocial behavior, and in others gambling, and often the three are combined,” said Black, who has studied pathological gambling for the past eight years.
