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When doctors pull out their prescription pads, chances are good that they are relying on incomplete information about the safety and efficacy of the drugs -- from Celebrex to Zoloft [...]

Offers information on the difficulties of clinical trials of experimental drugs in the United States. Problems with the trials, including neglect to report reactions to the drugs and failure by doctors to inform patients of the benefits and risks of a study; Effects of these problems, including death; Example of the death of Elyse MacEwen; Role of the US Office for Protection from Research Risk in the protection of patients; Comments from patients.

Reports that research on teenage behavior suggests that it is a result of brain structure. Possible correlation between the brains of teenagers and children, rather than teenagers and adults; Growth of certain sectors of the brain before others, suggesting erratic and emotionally unstable behavior; Details of research into the brains of children and teenagers; Research on hormone changes in teenagers; Possible connections between physiological changes and eating disorders; Research into teenagers and sleep. INSETS: You were angry?;Anorexia's roots in the brain;Why teens need more snooze time.

Discusses medical experiments at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Federal biomedical research funding; How the National Institutes of Health's Office for Protection From Research Risks (OPRR) forced the university to shut down all medical experiments involving human subjects; Deficiencies cited by OPRR, which oversees patient safety; Violation of rules regulating clinical trials in the United States; Patients' failure to understand that medical experiments can pose dangers.

Examines deaths associated with taking Viagra. Number of those who have died after taking the pills; Side effects of the drug; Lawsuits against Viagra's manufacturer, Pfizer; Concerns that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug too quickly; New era of drug regulation; Viagra's original therapeutic purpose; Its clinical trials; Profitability of the drug for Pfizer; Ease with which Viagra can be obtained. INSETS: Buying Viagra on the Internet, by Gary Cohen;A new definition of safe sex? by Susan Brink.

One of the central tenets of modern medicine is that the earlier your doctor can catch a disease, the better. This has proved a brilliant strategy for several conditions. Detecting [...]

Describes the current research in 1997 on the human senses. The effect of technology upon the senses; What our senses tell us about the human brain; Each sense discussed in detail; Sight; Hearing; Touch; Smell; Taste. INSET: Wish you had that nose? by Anna Mulrine (Are you a supertaster....

Reports on the announcement by the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) that a potato-size rock known as ALH84001 may provide evidence that life existed on Mars. Discovery of the rock in Antarctica; Clues to the possibility of biological life reported in `Science' (August 1996); Upcoming missions to Mars; NASA's Origins program. INSETS: Return to the Red Planet;Planet cousins;Evidence of life?.

Discusses how a large number of couples with fertility problems are trying high-tech remedies at fertility clinics across America. Vast majority of couples walk out empty-handed; How the industry is unregulated; How baby chase can be emotionally and physically draining; Description of in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure; Cost factors; How fertility clinics compare; Experiences of some couples who have gone to clinics.

Discusses how United States President Bill Clinton remained positive during the week prior to February 9, 1998, despite the allegations that he had a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton's high approval ratings; The evidence that the public is processing the scandal very differently from way the press is; The issuance of blunt denials by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Most Americans would undoubtedly agree that the best way to avoid dying from cancer -- apart from not getting it in the first place -- is by catching tumors as [...]

http://discovermagazine.com/2002/aug/featbad

THE FORGETTING: Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic by David Shenk Doubleday, $26.00 Remembrance of Things Past FOR THOSE OF US OF A CERTAIN age, fretting about Alzheimer's goes beyond the [...]

THE VAST MAJORITY OF BOOKS about biotechnology spend endless pages trumpeting the triumphs of genetic medicine and the coming age of wonder drugs. Susan Quinn wants to try something different [...]

Many families are torn as the Supreme Court upholds an antigay policy that some feel is unfair. Like many active third graders, Martin Thompson keeps a tight schedule. He studies […]

MILLIONS OF WOMEN TAKE HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS THAT PROMISE TO HELP THEM LOSE WEIGHT. BUT THESE PILLS AREN'T AS SAFE AS THEY SEEM, AND THE GOVERNMENT ISN'T DOING ENOUGH ABOUT IT. [...]

Criticizes the plans of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for ensuring public safety in the event of a smallpox outbreak. Failure of bioterrorism advisers to estimate the number of citizens who suffer serious reactions to the vaccine; Problem with the availability of drugs that have shown promise in treating vaccine side effects; Inability of the Bush administration to get experimental anti-bioterrorism drugs into production.

Focuses on the major health crisis surrounding childhood obesity in the United States. Statistics indicating skyrocketing rates of obesity; Demand issued by the U.S. Surgeon General for the nation to fight its growing weight problem; Health problems associated with obesity, including high blood pressure, hearth disease, and Type 2 diabetes; What parents can do to protect their children from the dangers of obesity; Mention of camps for obese children that teach kids to make lasting changes in their eating and exercise habits.

Discusses the readiness of the U.S. for bioterrorist attacks, in light of anthrax attacks. Ways the U.S. is equipped to handle epidemics, including vaccines, antibiotics, and some antiviral drugs; Idea that the U.S. is not well-equipped legally to enforce strict edicts to combat plague; Claim that the U.S. public health law would be weak and ineffective in a bioterrorist attack.

Examines the decline in female scientists in the United States due to increased numbers with children. Threats to the national economy due to this labor shortage; Impact of lack of role models at universities for female science students; Sexual discrimination against women scientists; Conflicts between careers and families; Anti-family sentiments in universities and research institutions; Efforts of organizations, such as the Association for Women in Science, to aid female students with children.

Reports on the development of drugs which act as viruses that attack cancer cells in patients. How the virus attacks the cancer cells but leaves healthy cells intact; Description of Onyx-015, which was developed by Frank McCormick of Onyx Pharmaceuticals; Discussion of antibodies which prod the immune system into attacking cancer cells; Details of Glivec, a drug that disables a uniquely aberrant protein produced inside cells of chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Reports on some of the drugs that pharmaceutical companies are trying to develop that would prevent precancerous cells from turning malignant. How this approach differs from cancer treatment at present; A list of drugs that companies are pursuing that would stymie the disease; The development of sulindac by Cell Pathways that could be used in colon cancer.

When we look back on the health-care plans of the 2008 campaign, we may wonder that no one chose to face up to one of the most troubling recent developments […]

Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies By Greg Critser Houghton Mifflin, $24.95 Sometime in the late '80s, the CEO of the drug company Glaxo-SmithKline [...]

DEATH IS THAT MAN TAKING NAMES by Robert A. Burt University of California Press, $29.95 IN 1989, THE ROBERT WOOD Johnson Foundation funded a five-year, $30 million study of how [...]

Discusses the campaign against prostate cancer in the United States. Report on activities during Prostate Cancer Awareness (PSA) month; Fact that PSA test can detect cancer on average eleven years earlier than other methods, including the digital rectal exam; Surgery for prostate cancer being radical prostatectomy; Information that more men are undergoing an increasingly common treatment for prostate cancer.

Predicts that there will be drugs to block the advance of cancer cells in the 21st century. Availability of tools for early detection of cancer; Advancement in the understanding of cancer's molecular machinery; Research into a class of drugs that inhibits cells from growing their own blood-supply system; Efforts to make cancer into a controllable condition like diabetes.

The preceding papers in this Series have outlined how underuse and overuse of health-care services occur within a complex system of health-care production, with a multiplicity of causes. Because poor care is ubiquitous and has considerable consequences for the health and wellbeing of billions of people around the world, remedying this problem is a morally and politically urgent task. Universal health coverage is a key step towards achieving the right care. Therefore, full consideration of potential levers of change must include an upstream perspective—ie, an understanding of the system-level factors that drive overuse and underuse, as well as the various incentives at work during a clinical encounter. One example of a system-level factor is the allocation of resources (eg, hospital beds and clinicians) to meet the needs of a local population to minimise underuse or overuse. Another example is priority setting using tools such as health technology assessment to guide the optimum diffusion of safe, effective, and cost-effective health-care services. In this Series paper we investigate a range of levers for eliminating medical underuse and overuse. Some levers could operate effectively (and be politically viable) across many different health and political systems (eg, increase patient activation with decision support) whereas other levers must be tailored to local contexts (eg, basing coverage decisions on a particular cost-effectiveness ratio). Ideally, policies must move beyond the purely incremental; that is, policies that merely tinker at the policy edges after underuse or overuse arises. In this regard, efforts to increase public awareness, mobilisation, and empowerment hold promise as universal methods to reset all other contexts and thereby enhance all other efforts to promote the right care.

Overuse, which is defined as the provision of medical services that are more likely to cause harm than good, is a pervasive problem. Direct measurement of overuse through documentation of delivery of inappropriate services is challenging given the difficulty of defining appropriate care for patients with individual preferences and needs; overuse can also be measured indirectly through examination of unwarranted geographical variations in prevalence of procedures and care intensity. Despite the challenges, the high prevalence of overuse is well documented in high-income countries across a wide range of services and is increasingly recognised in low-income countries. Overuse of unneeded services can harm patients physically and psychologically, and can harm health systems by wasting resources and deflecting investments in both public health and social spending, which is known to contribute to health. Although harms from overuse have not been well quantified and trends have not been well described, overuse is likely to be increasing worldwide.