Cough :: Slow-release morphine reduces level of intractable cough
Slow-release morphine helped a group of patients with long-term, treatment-resistant chronic cough reduce their daily cough score levels by 40 percent.
Constipation
Menopause :: Mechanism of black cohosh versus hot flashes revealed
The natural herb black cohosh is commonly used by women to treat menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, but the molecular mechanisms underlying its action have eluded scientists — until now.
Incontinence :: Incontinence a common postnatal problem
Almost a quarter of all mothers have problems with exertion incontinence one year after childbirth, according to a new doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet. However, despite many physical ailments, new mothers have better self-rated health than other women in the same age group.
Homeopathy :: 60 percent of doctors’ surgeries prescribe homeopathic or herbal remedies
60 percent of Scottish doctors’ surgeries prescribe homeopathic remedies according to a study of nearly two million patients. Homeopathic prescribing is most prevalent among babies under 12 months and older people aged 81-90. The authors have called for a critical review of prescribing. The paper is published as leading UK scientific institutions voice concerns about changes to homeopathic labelling rules that came in in September 2006.
Constipation :: Suffering from chronic constipation?
New research has found that a new medication, tegaserod, is effective in treating nearly all symptoms associated with chronic constipation, a common disorder of the gastrointestinal tract that affects approximately 15 percent of the Western population at any one time. Tegaserod is currently the only drug aside from laxatives found to be effective at treating such a wide variety of symptoms. This research is published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Restless Legs Syndrome :: Boehringer Ingelheim?s pramipexole for the treatment of Restless Legs Syndrome RLS
Boehringer Ingelheim announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved pramipexole, a non-ergot dopamine agonist, for the treatment of moderate to severe primary Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS).1 This is an important milestone for pramipexole (Mirapexin? / Sifrol? / Mirapex?), which was already approved throughout the European Union in April 2006 for this second indication.
Cancer :: Patients respond well to first study to test higher doses of an anti-cancer drug
Researchers in the UK and the United States have found that a drug composed of an antibody carrying a highly toxic anti-cancer agent is well tolerated by patients at much higher doses than have been used before, according to research presented at the 18th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Prague on Friday.
Multiple Myeloma :: Long-term therapy in the fight against multiple myeloma cancer
There is no known cure for multiple myeloma, so its diagnosis means high-dose chemotherapy followed by repeated treatments with each relapse of the cancer ? a watch and wait approach. A new approach of providing patients with continuous therapy to keep the cancer at bay was explored by a team of international researchers from France, Switzerland, and Belgium; their findings will be published in the November 15, 2006, issue of Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.
Health :: Pharmion enrolled first patient into Vidaza Patient Registry
Pharmion Corporation (Nasdaq: PHRM) announced today the enrollment of the first patient in AVIDA(TM), a registry for patients treated with Vidaza(R) (azacitidine for injectable suspension). Vidaza was approved in May 2004 for the treatment of all five French-American-British (FAB) subtypes of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS): refractory anemia (RA) or refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARS) if accompanied by neutropenia or thrombocytopenia or requiring transfusions; refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB), refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation (RAEB-T), and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMMoL). Myelodysplastic syndromes are a serious and life-threatening group of diseases in which the bone marrow does not function normally, resulting in the production of malformed or immature blood cells.
Parkinson’s Disease :: Boehringer Ingelheim’s pramipexole, mirapexin/sifrol to improve depressive and motivational symptoms
New data presented today from a meta-analysis* of nearly 1,300 Parkinson?s disease (PD) patients, indicate that pramipexole (Mirapexin?/Sifrol?) has a beneficial effect on depressive and motivational symptoms in PD.1 This confirms findings from previously published clinical trials,2,3,4 and is in addition to its established efficacy in controlling motor symptoms. These findings are of particular interest as mood symptoms in PD can affect up to 50 percent of the patient population.1,5 The data were presented at the 10th International Congress of Parkinson?s Disease and Movement Disorders (MDS) in Kyoto, Japan.