Drugs and Side-Effects

• HRT
• Painkillers
• Readers alert: drug side-effects
• Vaccine dangers

Antibiotics: They’re wrongly prescribed in 80 per cent of cases

Doctors are still regularly prescribing antibiotics for conditions for which they are inappropriate or just plain useless. more »

Stuttering: Drug destined for different disorders decimates defect

Hats off to drug company Indevus Pharmaceuticals for its persistence in trying to find a health problem for its drug pagoclone. more »

No Cure, No Charge: How to make a drug company bankrupt

Now here’s an interesting idea that is being tested in the UK. A drug company has agreed to charge the country’s National Health Service for its multiple myeloma drug Velcade (bortezomib) only if it... more »

Hardening of the Arteries: Double drug therapy is more dangerous

Doctors regularly prescribe aspirin with an anti-coagulant such as warfarin in order to control hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), where plaque builds up around the main artery walls. more »

Vioxx: More evidence of heart damage

Yet more evidence has just come to light about the dangers of the painkiller Vioxx (rofecoxib), which was withdrawn from the market in 2004 after it was found to cause heart failure. more »

Asthma: Early use of antibiotics is a major cause

Children who are treated with antibiotics during their first year are twice as likely to develop asthma by the age of seven, new research has discovered. more »

Fibromyalgia: It becomes a ‘real’ disease when there’s a drug to sell

Fibromyalgia has always been one of those Cinderella diseases. Its symptoms seem real enough to the sufferer, who complains of chronic and widespread pains in the muscles, and fatigue. more »

Drug trials: If you pay, it's a good drug

The effectiveness of a drug is usually established by a trial, often one that also uses a placebo, or sugar pill, or another drug from the same family. These trials are expensive, and they’re invaria... more »

MMR and autism: US court tests the theory

The chances of parents ever proving in an English court that their child’s autism was caused by the MMR vaccine are about as likely as Tony Blair apologising for the Iraqi war. more »

HPV Vaccine: Gardasil may be a killer

The HPV vaccine – which is being given to girls aged between 11 and 12 to prevent cervical cancer in later life – may be a killer. So far three young girls have died after being vaccinated, and there... more »

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