Search

Alzheimer's disease is becoming increasingly common as people live longer. One in five people over the age of 80 will have the disease. Its initial characteristics are memory loss, progressing to confusion with familiar tasks, mood swings, disorientation and incontinence. Experts believe that changes in acetylcholine production within the brain cause the disease. Diagnosis is over 80% accurate. Early diagnosis is increasingly important as drug therapies, including rivastigmine and donepezil which improve cognitive abilities, become available. They are effective only in the early stages.

Cigarette manufacturers in the European Union are being told to drop misleading labels on cigarette packets and to use more space to warn users of the health consequences of smoking. [...]

The American Medical Association is asking the World Medical Association to call on doctors throughout the world to condemn the development and use of biological weapons and to be alert [...]

Parents of a 2 year old boy with thalassaemia are pleading with the fertility watchdog in the United Kingdom to be allowed to select an embryo that will produce a [...]

Experts have declared that the current fad among some parents to give their children single injections against measles, mumps, and rubella rather than the triple MMR vaccine is a 'backward [...]

A review which found that exercise and cognitive behaviour therapy are the most effective treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is likely to split even further the two camps of [...]

Refugees and people seeking asylum in Britain are being turned away by doctors who fear that they will be 'overwhelmed' with demanding and time consuming patients, said experts at a [...]

Ten patients who died after receiving a heart transplant at St George's Hospital in London last year should never have been put forward for the operation, according to a report [...]

The right of terminally ill patients for assistance to end their life moved a step closer last week when a woman with motor neurone disease won the battle to have [...]

A woman with motor neurone disease is taking the government to the High Court to win the right to die when she chooses under the Human Rights Act. Diane Pretty, [...]

The General Medical Council expects the number of complaints against doctors for this year to surpass last year's record breaking total and is stepping up its hearing procedures to deal [...]

Smokers are doing their country a huge favour by boosting tax revenue, dying early, and not drawing a pension, according to a report by the tobacco giant Philip Morris. Officials [...]

Six of the world's leading medical publishers have joined forces in a unique venture in which they have put profits aside to enable more than 100 of the poorest countries [...]

For more than 50 years Britain's governments and city planners have sidelined the rights of pedestrians in favour of cars, turning walking into an 'ever more unpleasant' experience, a report [...]

GPs applauded their leader this week for highlighting the crisis in the profession and pledging to fight for better working conditions in the coming months. Dr John Chisholm, chairman of [...]

The health service needs to offer more flexible working conditions to attract and retain women doctors in all branches of hospital medicine, a new report has said. Despite the fact [...]

The number of neurologists in the United Kingdom needs to double if patients are to receive an adequate service, leading specialists said last week. The United Kingdom, with only 358 [...]

People using the internet to access a therapist are being warned to take precautions to protect themselves against fraudulent practitioners. Guidelines from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy this [...]

Plans to boost the number of doctors working in the NHS are under threat from a shortage of medical academics at universities in the United Kingdom, the BMA has warned. [...]

The NHS is in danger of losing hundreds of newly qualified doctors that it can ill afford to lose if it fails to guarantee the jobs of those trained under [...]