Posts Tagged 'birth defects'

A report from station KAIT out of Arkansas explores the question of whether antidepressants cause suicidal thoughts in children.

According to the report, the assertion that there’s a link between antidepressant use and suicidal thoughts in children is controversial. But it said some studies have suggested such a link exists.

A number of studies have indicated that antidepressants categorized as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, widely hailed as wonder drugs in the 1990s, ...

An article in Canadian news magazine Maclean’s spotlights the fact that much medical and scientific research excludes female test subjects, leaving a sizable and potentially dangerous gap in clinical knowledge as to how a given medication or treatment may affect women.

The article mentions that a number of conditions, such as heart disease, appear to affect men and women differently in terms of frequency, symptoms or both. Yet men make up ...

In an interview with Ohio newspaper The Plain Dealer, psychologist Eric Maisel, author of “Rethinking Depression,” questions whether antidepressants are overprescribed.

Maisel points out that all diagnoses of depression are based on self-reporting. He questions whether much of what many medical providers now diagnose as depression requiring medication is, in fact, a natural reaction to some of life’s inevitable disappointments and losses.

In an introduction to the interview, Plain Dealer medical writer ...

Although published studies say a given treatment is effective, a host of unpublished studies may have reached precisely the opposite conclusion, according to Claire McCarthy, M.D., a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Boston.

In a recent blog entry for the Huffington Post, McCarthy warns of researchers’ tendency to publish only studies showing that a treatment is effective.

As an example of the distorted perceptions the situation can cause, McCarthy mentions a recent article ...

Canadian federal health agency Health Canada recently ordered a labeling update for the prescription drug Cipralex, which is the brand name for escitalopram.

The new labeling will reflect clinical trial data indicating that Cipralex can cause electrical changes in the heart, which in turn can lead to potentially life-threatening heart rhythms. According to Health Canada, the risk increases as dosage increases.

The agency recommends that patients taking Cipralex consult with a healthcare ...

An editorial in the Concord Monitor calls for more funding and research into the causes and treatment of autism.

The editorial cites a recent study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which raised the prevalence of autism by 78 percent, from 1 in 150 births to 1 in 88.

On average, according to the CDC study, 1 in every 252 girls and 1 in every 54 boys born today ...