Pharmacology

Study Correlates Smoking During Pregnancy And Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

A new study sheds light on the relationship between women who smoke while pregnant — or are exposed to second-hand smoke — and an increased risk of SIDS to their babies. Researchers at McMaster University have found a mechanism that explains why an infant’ ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 29 2008 - 10:41am

Autism: Study Says Thimerosal Mercury Doesn't Have Time To Accrete In Baby Bodies

February’s issue of Pediatrics offers a study saying there is reason to rethink blaming the spike in autism diagnoses on thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative routinely used in several childhood vaccines until the late ‘90s. The research from the U ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 31 2010 - 4:40pm

Cellcept Immunosuppressant Linked To Birth Defects

A new study documents malformations seen in an infant born to a kidney transplant recipient who had taken mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), a widely used immunosuppressant available commercially as Cellcept®. The findings suggest a specific birth defect pattern ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 6 2008 - 4:09pm

Study: Epilepsy Drug Does Not Also Help Migraines

Contrary to some reports, the epilepsy drug oxcarbazepine does not appear to prevent migraine, according to research published in the February 12, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The nearly five-month s ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 13 2008 - 9:31am

EMEA Recommends Orphan Drug Designation For AX200 For The Treatment Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

HEIDELBERG, Germany, February 14 /PRNewswire/-- SYGNIS Pharma AG (Frankfurt: LIO; ISIN DE0005043509; Prime Standard), today announced that it has received a positive recommendation from the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) of the European Me ...

Article - Anna Ohlden - Feb 21 2008 - 1:06pm

Cocaine Still Kills

A paper by Professor Fabrizio Schifano at the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Pharmacy, which has been published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, indicates that 1,022 people died between 1990 and 2004 in instances where the presence of cocaine ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2008 - 8:02am

The Anti-Depressant Effects Of Ketamine (But Ignore The Hallucinations)

Drug treatments for depression can take many weeks for the beneficial effects to emerge. The excruciating and disabling nature of depression highlights the urgency of developing treatments that act more rapidly. Ketamine, a drug used in general medicine as ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2008 - 8:42am

Kava Linked To Liver Damage

Kava has been used in ceremonies and for recreational and social purposes in the South Pacific since ancient times, much like alcohol, tea or coffee is in other societies today. In the 1980s other medicinal uses for kava began to emerge and it was marketed ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2008 - 10:49am

BaP From Oil Spills And Forest Fires Delays Bone Healing- And It's In Cigarette Smoke Too

Polyaromatic hydrocarbon benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), a toxic pollutant spread by oil spills, forest fires and car exhaust is also present in cigarette smoke and may represent a second way in which smoking delays bone healing, according to research presented toda ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 3 2008 - 3:14pm

What Do We Really Know About Anti-Depressants, Statins Or Anything Else In Pharmacology?

Following last week’s study suggesting that new generation antidepressants aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, a special report in this week’s BMJ asks do we really know the truth about antidepressants? Or statins? Or any other drug on the market? Lack of ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 7 2008 - 2:37am