Drugs
mikethemadbiologist | November 9, 2009You might think that a bill winding its way through Congress which would lift the ban on organizations using federal funding for needle exchange programs would be a good thing. And it would be a good thing, except for this little provision:
A bill working its way through Congress would lift a ban of more than 20 years on using federal money for needle exchange programs. But the bill would also ban federally financed exchanges from being within 1,000 feet of a school, park, library, college, video arcade or any place children might gather -- a provision that would apply to a majority of the…
ejohnson | October 13, 2009Women's taste in men varies naturally with their menstrual cycle--during the more fertile period, they are more drawn to a square jawline, heavy brow, facial symmetry, and other signs of masculinity. But a new study by a team of British biologists shows that women taking birth control are not subject to the same cyclical preferences; because the hormones in the birth controll pill essentially trick the body into believing it is pregnant, women taking the pill consistently favor men with less masculine features, who in terms of evolutionary history tend to make more loyal and supportive long-…
mikethemadbiologist | September 22, 2009Whenever drug legalization is raised, the anti-legalization side always raises the specter of increased addiction. That is, the argument is framed as a choice between legalization and the harm due to increased addiction. But this ignores a key factor--the death toll due to the 'War' on (Some People Who Use) Drugs:
We've heard a lot about the terrible death toll Mexico has suffered during the drug war -- over 11,000 souls so far...
Still, we've heard nothing about the American death toll. Isn't that strange? So far as I can tell, nobody has even tried to come up with a number.
Until now. I'…
revere | September 20, 2009I suppose under the theory that when dog bites man it's not news but when man bites dog it is, CDC's publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR) recently ran an outbreak report about people getting baked by brownies:
On April 8, 2009, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) notified officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) in California about a group of preschool teachers with nausea, dizziness, headache, and numbness and tingling of fingertips after consumption of brownies purchased 3 days before from a sidewalk vendor.
[snip]
On the morning of…
ejohnson | September 14, 2009
Humans have voracious appetites--for food and drink, stability and comfort, emotional fulfillment. How we satisfy those appetites is the subject of several posts on ScienceBlogs this week. On Neurotopia, Scicurious discusses an fMRI study that looks at how certain brain regions are activated when we think about our favorite foods when we are hungry versus when we have just eaten. DrugMonkey considers a paper that investigates the reliability of DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for MDMA abuse and dependence. And Razib of Gene Expression shares a figure from a Gallup poll comparing the relationship…
terrasig | August 15, 2009
Yes, this is my second post on Derek Lowe of my last three.
No, I am not his publicist.
But Derek has another nice post on how drug company scientists could do a better job on educating the public on the drug discovery process:
I do a lot of talking around here about how the general public doesn't really have a good idea of what goes on inside a drug company. But a conversation with a colleague has put me to thinking that this might be largely our own fault.
One of Dr. Lowe's talents is the ability to put a lot of ideas into very concise posts. So take two minutes to read about the 90%…
mikethemadbiologist | July 30, 2009I just finished reading Methland by Nick Reding. While the book focuses on the relationship between methamphetamines and the socioeconomic disintegration of rural areas*, this section about the interplay between lobbying and the failure to develop and produce an amphetamine that has decongestant activity but doesn't raise heart rate or possess addictive side effects was truly shocking (italics mine):
Mirror imaging is a process whereby a chemical's molecular structure is reversed, moving, for example, electrons from the bottom of a certain ring to the top, and vice versa. Pseudoephedrine,…
bioephemera | June 25, 2009This may be the best BBC story EVER. Seriously:
Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said."We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," Lara Giddings told the hearing. "Then they crash," she added. "We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."
I have nothing to add. At a complete loss here. I can't even come up with a bad pun.
PS - Oops, I forgot to say this was courtesy of reader Jake! Thanks Jake…
revere | June 22, 2009If you don't want to smell, the FDA has a recommendation: use an over-the-counter cold remedy that contains an intranasal zinc solution. You won't smell. Possibly ever again:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today advised consumers to stop using three products marketed over-the-counter as cold remedies because they are associated with the loss of sense of smell (anosmia). Anosmia may be long-lasting or permanent. (FDA Press Release)
Losing your sense of smell is no joke. It is intimately involved with your sense of taste and is a warning sense for dangerous gases. The role of zinc in…
moleculeoftheday | June 4, 2009Wow. It's not just anticancer drugs for dogs, there are also "lifestyle" drugs. They think they're people!
Just like people obesity drugs, they're intended for short-term use, coupled with a diet and exercise plan.
I really don't understand. It's not hard to put your dog on a diet. See here if you are interested in reading some dog forum chatter (including a first-person owner account) about the drug.
moleculeoftheday | June 3, 2009A few months ago, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor anticancer drug for people, this month, one for dogs.
It is made to treat cutaneous mast cell tumors, which apparently account for about a quarter of dog cancers.
I know a lot of people drugs end up in pets, but do pet drugs ever end up crossing over into human medicine? Anyone know anything about how the decision to go after a dog-specific drug works? Just cheaper to go after?
bioephemera | May 23, 2009
Morgan Care Pharmacy on P St. in Georgetown has all the character so sorely lacking from new drugstore franchises. Drugstores used to be so different: as a child, I savored root beer floats at our local drugstore soda fountain counter. (I know, very Norman Rockwell of me.) Are there any pharmacy soda fountain/luncheonette counters left today?
mikethemadbiologist | May 13, 2009A recent PLoS Medicine paper suggests so:
Everybody likes something free, and free prescription drug samples are no exception. Patients love to receive them, and doctors feel good about handing them out. The practice of providing free drug samples is based on the tacit assumption that "sampling" does much more good than harm. In two separate news releases within the past year by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the trade organization that represents the country's largest and leading drug companies, a senior vice president claimed that free samples improve…
scientificactivist | May 1, 2009On Wednesday, the CDC reported that influenza A H1N1 viruses from 13 patients with confirmed diagnoses of swine flu had been tested for resistance to a variety of antiviral drugs. The good news was that all of the isolates were susceptible to the antiviral drugs oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). However, all 13 were resistant to adamantane-based drugs (amantadine and rimantadine). Resistance to adamantane drugs (which were developed first) has actually become quite widespread among flu viruses in general, so oseltamivir and zanamivir are commonly the drugs of choice.
The…
revere | April 16, 2009The news of a new antiviral comes at a Press Conference. That could either mean a blockbuster breakthrough or an unwarranted device to get attention for some otherwise decent but not blockbuster science. Unfortunately, the news that "Experts Identify Compound That May Fight Bird Flu" is of the second type:
Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States have identified a synthetic compound which appears to be able to stop the replication of influenza viruses, including the H5N1 bird flu virus.
The search for such new "inhibitors" has grown more urgent in recent years as drugs, like oseltamivir…
mikethemadbiologist | April 12, 2009I've been meaning to get to this topic after it came up in Obama's 'online' press conference. For me, the argument in favor of legalization is that it would weaken organized crime and that legalization of other popular activities has done so in the past (more on that in a moment). Of course, for some reason, one can't discuss this without describing one's drug using history and beliefs, so here they are:
I don't smoke pot. I have no interest in doing so--I don't have any interest in smoking cigarettes either. Because I have a very good sense of smell (sadly, this is the sense that has…
mikethemadbiologist | April 7, 2009Atrios is right: Fairfax County, VA's policy about taking a birth control pill is school is nuts:
When a Fairfax County mother got an urgent call from school last month reporting that her teenage daughter was caught popping a pill at lunchtime, she did not panic. "It was probably her birth-control pill," she thought. She was right.
Her heart dropped that afternoon in the assistant principal's office at Oakton High School when she and her daughter heard the mandatory punishment: A two-week suspension and recommendation for expulsion....
Health advocates say that harsh penalties for students…
revere | April 2, 2009There has been more talk recently that our wastewater are loaded with pharmaceuticals. No surprise. People often dump out of date pills down the toilet, but much more important, they send them flushing in by excreting them. That's wastewater, though, not drinking water. They do get into drinking water, too, but at much lower levels. Now the EPA and collaborators at Baylor University have found another pathway to humans. Fish:
Fish from 5 U.S. rivers were found to be tainted with traces of medications and common chemicals, according to a new study from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency…
scientificactivist | April 2, 2009Through the results of widespread experimentation of the... well... let's say "non-scientific" variety, it's pretty well known that marijuana has the side effect of making the user very hungry. This is one of the many physiological effects of the active ingredient THC (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol). More relevantly, however, THC and other cannabinoids are actively being investigated for various useful clinical purposes, including the treatment of cancer through the inhibition of tumor growth.
A new study by Salazar et al. in The Journal of Clinical Investigation demonstrates that THC causes…
revere | March 31, 2009Tufts University is the latest institution to step in the Conflict of Interest mess and come out with shoes that smell. The University had organized a conference on conflict of interest in medicine and research, with Iowa's Republican Senator Charles Grassley as the keynoter. Grassley has been an indefatigable crusader against instances of fraud and abuse against the federal government, and is a principal author and defender of the Federal False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers to share in the recovery of fraudulently obtained monies (for an excellent account, see Henry Scammell's…