WHAT DOCTORS DON’T TELL YOU - E-NEWS BROADCAST No. 176 - 28 July 2005

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WDDTY e-News Broadcast - 28 July 2005

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 20:39:18 +0100

 

 

 

 

WHAT DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU - E-NEWS BROADCAST No. 176 - 28 July 2005

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NEWS CONTENT

 

 

ALZHEIMER'S: The drugs still don't work

DRUG ALERT: Psoriasis therapy causes serious infection

PSYCHIATRY: Closed doors, closed minds

ASPIRIN: It doesn't prevent heart attack, either

 

 

ALZHEIMER'S: The drugs still don't work

 

Along with most every other disease, Alzheimer's remains a complete

enigma to conventional medicine. Pharmaceuticals are its one response

to the disease, and so far every trail has proved to be false.

The latest attempt has been to try statins, the heart drugs, on the

problem. The thinking behind it is that the processes that the

statins trigger to reduce cholesterol might also work to slow the

progress of Alzheimer's and dementia.

To test the theory, researchers recruited 2,798 people aged 65 and

over who were free of dementia at the start of the trial. However,

when they compared the participants against a similar group who had

never taken statins, the researchers found that the drugs offered no

protection against Alzheimer's or dementia.

Meanwhile, a decision on the fate of three existing Alzheimer's drugs

is imminent. The drugs, donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine, are

due to be removed from the list of drugs that are available under the

UK's National Health Service. The National Institute for Clinical

Evidence (NICE), the group that reviews drug efficacy against cost,

has recommended that the drugs be removed from NHS lists. Each drug

costs £2.50 per day per patient, and none provide a worthwhile benefit.

Of course, it could be that the problem is better tackled by an

approach that doesn't involve expensive drugs, but where's the bottom

line in that?

(Source: Archives of Neurology, 2005; 62: 1047-51).

 

 

 

DRUG ALERT: Psoriasis therapy causes serious infection

 

A special alert has been issued this week about the psoriasis drug

Raptiva (efalizumab). It's a possible cause of anaemia and a series

of life-threatening infections.

This is bad news for psoriasis patients as the drug is intended as a

'last resort' therapy, and to be used only if all other treatments

have failed - not that we suppose for even a moment that it's being

prescribed that way.

New studies into the drug have discovered that the drug has been

connected to cases of immune-mediated hemolytic anaemia, and to

life-threatening infections such as necrotizing fascutis, tubercolous

pneumonia, bacterial sepsis, severe pneumonia with neutropenia, and a

worsening of any existing infection.

The reactions tend to occur within four to six months of starting the

drug.

The drug was licensed in 2004 in Europe and the USA, which means it

passed all the safety tests. At the time, regulators were aware that

the drug might cause infection, but the severity of the reaction has

not been realized until now.

Other side effects include headache, chills, nausea, flu syndrome and

fever.

The drug works by suppressing the immune system, which explains the

extent of the infections. The jury's still out as to whether the drug

might increase the risk of cancer, but no doubt we'll be told in the

fullness of time.

(Source: Food and Drug Administration website).

 

 

 

PSYCHIATRY: Closed doors, closed minds

 

Anyone who sees medicine as a closed group, especially to

'troublemakers' who want to complain, might have to adjust their

superlatives should they ever try to break down the doors of psychiatry.

Psychiatry is the most secret of groups, almost immune to any

complaint of abuse or maltreatment, as patients discovered when they

tried to 'out' two psychiatrists.

The two psychiatrists have been accused of sexually abusing vulnerable

female patients throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and they were able to

get away with it because of the culture within the profession of

'turning a blind eye', a Department of Health independent inquiry has

concluded.

Despite the barrage of complaints against the two, nothing was ever

done, and both were able to retire in the late 1980s. They were also

allowed to voluntarily remove themselves from the medical register, so

avoiding any disciplinary hearing by the General Medical Council.

The inquiry found that all complaints were ignored, consultants were

viewed as being 'all powerful', and colleagues were reluctant to raise

concerns about fellow professionals.

Fortunately, the legal process was prepared to act, even if the

medical groups weren't, and one of the two psychiatrists was jailed in

2003 on four counts of indecently assaulting patients, and the other

was convicted in 2000 on one count of indecent assault.

Could it also be that the profession was not prepared to act because

the accusers were female, and ones categorized, no doubt, as

hysterical or unstable?

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2005; 331: 175).

 

 

 

ASPIRIN: It doesn't prevent heart attack, either

 

We don't mean to have it in for aspirin, but following last week's

alert about its inability to protect against cancer, another study has

revealed that it's equally ineffective against heart attack.

This latest discovery is a bit of a shock for all of you who have

listened to doctor's advice and included aspirin in your daily health

regime. If it was good for anything, it was as a protective agent

against myocardial infarction (MI), or heart attack, we were told.

Well, when the theory was tested on 39,876 women aged over 45, the

largest ever group assembled for a medical trial, the drug offered

virtually no protection against a heart attack.

It did slightly reduce the risk of stroke, however, but researchers

say that this small benefit has to be weighed against the far higher

risk of serious gastro-intestinal bleeding, a common side effect of

aspirin. Some of the participants who suffered bleeding needed a

transfusion.

The group was split in two: one took 100 mg aspirin every other day,

and the rest took a placebo, and the results were monitored over a

10-year period.

(Source: New England Journal of Medicine, 2005; 352: 1293-304).