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  • September 2, 2014
  • 08:00 AM
  • 1,068 views

The Anti-Vaccine Movement Is A Preventable Disease

by Mark E. Lasbury in The 'Scope

Yet another study that attempts to make a link between vaccines and autism has been withdrawn by the publishers. Data from the CDC was re-analysed, and low and behold, a link between vaccine timing and autism was drawn, but only for African-American boys. The problems with this paper and the anti-vaccine movement in general are discussed.... Read more »

  • August 19, 2014
  • 10:15 PM
  • 1,228 views

Dextrose 10% in the Treatment of Out-of-Hospital Hypoglycemia

by Rogue Medic in Rogue Medic

Is 50% dextrose as good as 10% dextrose for treating symptomatic hypoglycemia?

If the patient is disoriented, but becomes oriented before the full dose of dextrose is given, is it appropriate to continue to treat the patient as if the patient were still disoriented? If your protocols require you to keep giving dextrose, do the same protocols require you to keep giving opioids after the pain is relieved? Is there really any difference?

50% dextrose has problems.... Read more »

Kiefer MV, Gene Hern H, Alter HJ, & Barger JB. (2014) Dextrose 10% in the treatment of out-of-hospital hypoglycemia. Prehospital and disaster medicine, 29(2), 190-4. PMID: 24735872  

  • August 18, 2014
  • 10:16 AM
  • 650 views

Guidelines for Treatment of Problem Gambling

by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts

Despite the prevalence and impact of problem gambling, few summaries or guidelines address treatment.Searching the guideline.gov website shows no recent additions to the guideline literature.A guideline was published by the Singapore Ministry of Health in 2011. This guideline is still relevant and highlights some of the key elements of a problem gambling treatment program.I will summarize some of these key elements from this source titled: "Management of gambling disorders".  In their summa........ Read more »

Lee KM, Chan HN, Cheah B, Gentica GF, Guo S, Lim HK, Lim YC, Noorul F, Tan HS, Teo P.... (2011) Ministry of Health clinical practice guidelines: management of gambling disorders. Singapore medical journal, 52(6), 456. PMID: 21732000  

  • August 14, 2014
  • 11:17 AM
  • 739 views

FDA Approves Novel Insomnia Drug Suvorexant (Belsomra)

by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts

Regular readers of this blog had a heads up last year on the development of orexin receptor antagonists for the treatment of insomnia.I posted a review of an Italian clinical drug trial in humans with insomnia paired with polysomnography. This study used three different doses of a orexin receptor antagonist (10 mg 30 mg and 60 mg).In a second post, I reviewed a sleep lab study of the effects of an orexin antagonist drug compared to zolpidem (Ambien) on sleep architecture.This second study found ........ Read more »

  • August 13, 2014
  • 11:35 PM
  • 868 views

The Controversy of Admitting 'We Do Not Know What Works'

by Rogue Medic in Rogue Medic

There are several news articles today criticizing a study because the patients might be deprived of a drug that has not been adequately studied in humans. This criticism is coming from journalists – the people who publicized the fraudulent vaccines research by Andrew Wakefield, who was trying to sell his competing vaccine and was being paid to produce negative research by lawyers suing the vaccine companies.[1]

The real controversy is that this untested drug became the standard of care ........ Read more »

Larabee TM, Liu KY, Campbell JA, & Little CM. (2012) Vasopressors in cardiac arrest: a systematic review. Resuscitation, 83(8), 932-9. PMID: 22425731  

Herlitz J, Ekström L, Wennerblom B, Axelsson A, Bång A, & Holmberg S. (1995) Adrenaline in out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation. Does it make any difference?. Resuscitation, 29(3), 195-201. PMID: 7667549  

Olasveengen, T., Sunde, K., Brunborg, C., Thowsen, J., Steen, P., & Wik, L. (2009) Intravenous Drug Administration During Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Randomized Trial. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 302(20), 2222-2229. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2009.1729  

Hagihara A, Hasegawa M, Abe T, Nagata T, Wakata Y, & Miyazaki S. (2012) Prehospital epinephrine use and survival among patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association, 307(11), 1161-8. PMID: 22436956  

Hayashi Y, Iwami T, Kitamura T, Nishiuchi T, Kajino K, Sakai T, Nishiyama C, Nitta M, Hiraide A, & Kai T. (2012) Impact of early intravenous epinephrine administration on outcomes following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Circulation journal : official journal of the Japanese Circulation Society, 76(7), 1639-45. PMID: 22481099  

Glover BM, Brown SP, Morrison L, Davis D, Kudenchuk PJ, Van Ottingham L, Vaillancourt C, Cheskes S, Atkins DL, Dorian P.... (2012) Wide variability in drug use in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A report from the resuscitation outcomes consortium. Resuscitation. PMID: 22858552  

Donnino, M., Salciccioli, J., Howell, M., Cocchi, M., Giberson, B., Berg, K., Gautam, S., Callaway, C., & , . (2014) Time to administration of epinephrine and outcome after in-hospital cardiac arrest with non-shockable rhythms: retrospective analysis of large in-hospital data registry. BMJ, 348(may20 2). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.g3028  

Stiell IG, Hebert PC, Weitzman BN, Wells GA, Raman S, Stark RM, Higginson LA, Ahuja J, & Dickinson GE. (1992) High-dose epinephrine in adult cardiac arrest. The New England journal of medicine, 327(15), 1045-50. PMID: 1522840  

Callaway, C. (2012) Questioning the Use of Epinephrine to Treat Cardiac Arrest. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 307(11), 1198. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2012.313  

  • August 3, 2014
  • 05:00 PM
  • 1,184 views

Resuscitation characteristics and outcomes in suspected drug overdose-related out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

by Rogue Medic in Rogue Medic

This study is interesting for several reasons.

In a system that claims excellence, the most consistent way to identify the study group is by documentation of a protocol violation - but it is not intended as a study of protocol violations.

This may hint at some benefit from epinephrine (Adrenaline in Commonwealth countries), but that would require some study and we just don't study epinephrine. We only make excuses for not studying epinephrine.

The atropine results suggest that the ........ Read more »

Roberts, J. (2011) InFocus: Dissecting the ACLS Guidelines on Cardiac Arrest from Toxic Ingestions. Emergency Medicine News, 33(10), 16-18. DOI: 10.1097/01.EEM.0000406945.05619.ca  

  • July 29, 2014
  • 07:01 PM
  • 1,123 views

Gabapentin and pregabalin misuse

by DJMac in Recovery Review

  Gabapentin and pregabalin misuse are problems that are not going to go away. My post on gabapentin is one of the most-read on this site. While these are useful medicines, workers in drug treatment and support see patients regularly on gabapentin or pregabalin who have misused the drugs or who are misusing them. Guidance is [...]
The post Gabapentin and pregabalin misuse appeared first on Recovery Review.
... Read more »

  • July 23, 2014
  • 12:14 PM
  • 557 views

Vaccine halves dengue cases

by Yao-Hua Law in TORCH

[Another version of this article was first published on SciDev.Net. Click here for link.]   A vaccine that can half the number of dengue cases will soon be available. A recent trial conducted in Southeast Asia shows that this dengue vaccine achieves a vaccine efficacy of 56.5%: the vaccine reduces an individual’s chance of getting […]... Read more »

  • July 20, 2014
  • 11:21 AM
  • 766 views

Slowing Heart Disease

by Viputheshwar Sitaraman in Draw Science

Stopping just one minor enzyme leads to an entire cascade of pathways that can slow heart disease. [Infographic]... Read more »

Blazevic T, Schwaiberger AV, Schreiner CE, Schachner D, Schaible AM, Grojer CS, Atanasov AG, Werz O, Dirsch VM, & Heiss EH. (2013) 12/15-lipoxygenase contributes to platelet-derived growth factor-induced activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3. The Journal of biological chemistry, 288(49), 35592-603. PMID: 24165129  

  • July 16, 2014
  • 08:05 AM
  • 987 views

East To West And Back Again

by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules

Sunflowers were named by Linnaeus for their round shape and bright color that reminded him of the sun, not because they follow the sun. But they do seem to turn to face the sun each day. A new review has looked at the molecular mechanisms that control the movement of the apex of the plant. But questions remain – how does the plant turn back to the east at night? Why is it that the flower turns but the leaves do not? Why does the movement stop when the flower matures?... Read more »

  • July 12, 2014
  • 07:02 PM
  • 777 views

Legal highs – not for human consumption

by DJMac in Recovery Review

Legal highs in Lothian The UK has the largest market for new psychoactive substances (NSP or “legal highs”) in Europe. Scotland is no stranger to them and, as a seminar in Edinburgh heard last week, the Lothian area is seeing a surge in demand, some worrying trends in injecting and significant new presentations due to problems [...]
The post Legal highs - not for human consumption appeared first on Recovery Review.
... Read more »

Baumann, M. (2014) Awash in a sea of ‘bath salts’: implications for biomedical research and public health. Addiction. DOI: 10.1111/add.12601  

  • July 10, 2014
  • 07:17 AM
  • 716 views

Can a Failed Schizophrenia Drug Prevent PTSD?

by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic

In the 2000s, enthusiasm was high that a novel class of drugs would reach the market as blockbuster treatments for psychiatric disorders. These drugs act on receptors for a group of neuropeptides known as tachykinins (or neurokinins). These peptides — substance P (SP), neurokinin A (NkA), and neurokinin B (NkB) — function as neurotransmitters or neuromodulators in the central nervous system, but are quite different from the usual monoamines targeted by current psychotropic medications prescr........ Read more »

  • July 9, 2014
  • 08:15 AM
  • 799 views

What’s So Repelling About Repellents?

by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules

It’s amazing that even though citronella and DEET reduce mosquito bites, we have very little idea of how they work. New research is showing that DEET interacts with olfactory receptors so that chemical attractants are still sensed, but their interpretations are confused. You are still there, but you pretty disappear as far as the mosquito is concerned. Other research shows that one of the co-receptors for olfactory receptors is responsible not only for DEET activity, but also for mosquito ........ Read more »

  • July 2, 2014
  • 03:54 PM
  • 870 views

Plant = Pill?

by Viputheshwar Sitaraman in Draw Science

E. Longfolia: an aphrodisiac, anti-inflammatory, and anti-malarial miracle plant. [Infographic]... Read more »

Tran TV, Malainer C, Schwaiger S, Atanasov AG, Heiss EH, Dirsch VM, & Stuppner H. (2014) NF-κB inhibitors from Eurycoma longifolia. Journal of natural products, 77(3), 483-8. PMID: 24467387  

  • July 2, 2014
  • 08:25 AM
  • 1,014 views

How Do Mosquitoes Find You?

by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules

Spend much time outside in the summer and you will have to deal with mosquitoes. The mechanisms that females use to find a blood meal are becoming better understood. New research shows how the proboscis probes for a blood vessel, perhaps using the TRPA1 heat sensing ion channel as a signal for nearby blood.

Once they feed, females lay eggs. New research indicates that they actually prefer water that contains the dead larvae of similar mosquitoes, dead from predators. The presence of predator........ Read more »

  • June 29, 2014
  • 11:55 PM
  • 893 views

Safety of Intranasal Fentanyl in the Out-of-Hospital Setting - A Prospective Observational Study

by Rogue Medic in Rogue Medic

I have been very critical of plans to have first responders treat people they suspect of having a heroin (or other) opioid overdose with naloxone.

Would first responders be safer with fentanyl?

It is not really the same question, but it does highlight the differences and why I think fentanyl is safer. The patient will be seen by someone more likely to recognize when the treatment is inappropriate. This study looked at IN (IntraNasal) fentanyl given by basic EMTs prior to transport to the E........ Read more »

  • June 25, 2014
  • 08:15 AM
  • 927 views

They Can See The Blood Running Through You

by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules

Vampire bats sense heat via pit organs in their nose-leaves, but they find their victims by sight, smell and echolocation. New research shows that an alternatively spliced version of the capsaicin receptor TRPV1 is responsible for the heat sensing, but what do they use it for? Their teeth are so short that they must find blood vessels close to the surface – shallow vessels give off more heat than do deep vessels or skin where there is no large vessel.

Vampire bats occasionally feed on ........ Read more »

Patel R, Ispoglou S, & Apostolakis S. (2014) Desmoteplase as a potential treatment for cerebral ischaemia. Expert opinion on investigational drugs, 23(6), 865-73. PMID: 24766516  

Gracheva EO, Cordero-Morales JF, González-Carcacía JA, Ingolia NT, Manno C, Aranguren CI, Weissman JS, & Julius D. (2011) Ganglion-specific splicing of TRPV1 underlies infrared sensation in vampire bats. Nature, 476(7358), 88-91. PMID: 21814281  

  • June 23, 2014
  • 01:30 PM
  • 1,344 views

The Iceman Cometh

by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories

Are you so fat you can’t see your toes? Have you forgotten what toes even look like? Have you been mistaken for the infamous “Kool-aid man”? Want to shed the […]... Read more »

Lee, P., Smith, S., Linderman, J., Courville, A., Brychta, R., Dieckmann, W., Werner, C., Chen, K., & Celi, F. (2014) Temperature-acclimated brown adipose tissue modulates insulin sensitivity in humans. Diabetes. DOI: 10.2337/db14-0513  

Liu, M., Bai, J., He, S., Villarreal, R., Hu, D., Zhang, C., Yang, X., Liang, H., Slaga, T., Yu, Y.... (2014) Grb10 Promotes Lipolysis and Thermogenesis by Phosphorylation-Dependent Feedback Inhibition of mTORC1. Cell Metabolism, 19(6), 967-980. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2014.03.018  

  • June 23, 2014
  • 10:52 AM
  • 535 views

Varenicline for Smoking Cessation

by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts

Varenicline is a drug designed to assist smokers in cessation. It is marketed in the U.S. as Chantix.Varenicline is one of the first drugs to target the nicotine receptor. It is classified as a partial agonist, meaning it stimulates the nicotine receptor but to a weaker effect than nicotine itself.The mechanism of action of varenicline differs from that of another smoking cessation drug bupropion marked under trade name Zyban in the U.S.One concern with varenicline is the risk for psychiatric ad........ Read more »

  • June 23, 2014
  • 10:30 AM
  • 670 views

The Iceman Cometh

by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories

Are you so fat you can't see your toes? Have you forgotten what toes even look like? Have you been mistaken for the infamous "Kool-aid man"? Want to shed the pounds easier than taking off your shirt? Well too bad, that is science fiction and the stuff of horrid marketing ploys and this my friends is a science website. Losing weight is hard, I've written several articles on it in fact. Nothing is going to be more effective at weight loss than a sensible diet, a calorie deficit........ Read more »

Lee, P., Smith, S., Linderman, J., Courville, A., Brychta, R., Dieckmann, W., Werner, C., Chen, K., & Celi, F. (2014) Temperature-acclimated brown adipose tissue modulates insulin sensitivity in humans. Diabetes. DOI: 10.2337/db14-0513  

Liu, M., Bai, J., He, S., Villarreal, R., Hu, D., Zhang, C., Yang, X., Liang, H., Slaga, T., Yu, Y.... (2014) Grb10 Promotes Lipolysis and Thermogenesis by Phosphorylation-Dependent Feedback Inhibition of mTORC1. Cell Metabolism, 19(6), 967-980. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2014.03.018  

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