WHAT DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU READERS' BROADCAST - E-news broadcast. 242 - 23 Ma

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News contents

 

 

 

BLOOD PRESSURE: Levels are dropping without drugs

DEPRESSING: FDA owns up about suicide rates two years late

 

 

LAUGHTER: It's as powerful as a statin drug for heart health

SIDE EFFECTS: Even the pharmacists are keeping silent

 

DVT: It's something to do with the airplane

 

 

BLOOD PRESSURE: Levels are dropping without drugs

 

Hypertension (high blood pressure) drugs represent one of the most

lucrative product sectors for the pharmaceuticals – and the fact

that blood pressure levels are reducing in industrialized countries

suggests they are effective.

But a new World Health Organization (WHO) study has discovered that

blood pressure levels are declining among people who have never been

prescribed a hypertensive – and were falling across populations

before the drugs were being so readily prescribed.

This suggests that the family of antihypertensives is taking credit

for a phenomenon that is more down to lifestyle changes, such as

quitting smoking, and eating a healthier diet.

Despite this, antihypertensives – which include diuretics, ACE

inhibitors and beta channel blockers - account for 20 per cent of

all prescriptions made out by family doctors, an increase that began

in the mid-1990s when more and more antihypertensives were being

launched.

The WHO study monitored blood pressure levels of around 23,000

people aged from 35 to 64 from 21 countries across four continents

from 1985 to 1995. Although blood pressure levels fluctuated wildly

from country to country, the average level dropped by 2.2 mm Hg in

men and by 3.3. mm Hg in women over the 10 years. During the same

period, antihypertensive prescriptions rose by 11 per cent among

people with high blood pressure, and yet their blood pressure

improved by the same amount as those who were not taking a drug.

Researchers reckoned that blood pressure levels should have dropped

by 19 mm Hg among those taking a drug if the medication was being

effective.

Doctors should be doing more to encourage people with high blood

pressure to adopt healthier lifestyles – and this alone should be

enough to improve the problem – without reaching for their

prescription pads.

But will the drug companies be prepared to stand back and watch 20

per cent of their revenues suddenly disappear?

(Source: British Medical Journal, 2006; 332: 629-32).

 

 

 

DEPRESSING: FDA owns up about suicide rates two years late

 

America's drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, has

finally admitted that antidepressants double the suicide rate in

children – a fact it's suppressed for nearly two years.

The discovery was made by one of its experts, Andrew Mosholder, and

his findings were leaked to the press in August 2004. Despite this,

the FDA barred him from publishing his findings.

Mosholder's study has finally seen the light of day, and it makes

for extremely worrying reading. Mosholder had analysed 24 studies

that involved 4,582 patients taking one of nine different

antidepressants. Even after the research excluded 260 of 427

suicides or attempted suicides, it still found that the drugs nearly

doubled the risk of suicide among children and adolescents.

But if the FDA's principal role is guardian of public safety, why

has it suppressed this damning evidence for so long – and how many

children during that time took their lives? It's something their

parents have a right to know.

(Source: Archives of General Psychiatry, 2006; 63: 332-9).

LAUGHTER: It's as powerful as a statin drug for heart health

 

 

A good laugh may be as good for your heart as taking a statin heart

drug.

 

A study of 20 healthy volunteers found that laughter increased the

flow of blood to the heart by 22 per cent, which was similar to the

results of starting a statin drug or doing strenuous exercise.

Their brachial artery flow mediated vasodilatation (FMD) was

measured before and after watching the comedy film There's Something

About Mary.

Their FMD was also measured after they watched the tense and

stressful Saving Private Ryan war movie. After watching this film,

their FMD reduced by 35 per cent.

(Source: Heart, 2006; 92: 261-2).

 

 

 

SIDE EFFECTS: Even the pharmacists are keeping silent

 

It's well known that doctors and hospital consultants are

notoriously bad at reporting drug side effects – but it seems that

pharmacists are just as reluctant to report reactions to over-the-

counter remedies that don't need a prescription.

A study has found that pharmacists are unlikely to comply with a new

national reporting system, designed to flag potentially dangerous

drugs and remedies.

Pharmacists said they were unlikely to report a side effect if a

patient had been harmed, and were more likely to report only those

incidents where a protocol had been broken. They also feared that

they would be blamed for any side effect, and so felt it was not

worth running the risk.

(Source: Quality of Safety of Health Care, 2006; 15: 48-52).

DVT: It's something to do with the airplane

 

There's something about being on a long-haul airline flight that is

more likely to lead to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) than sitting for a

long time anywhere else.

Researchers wondered if it was the act of sitting for a lengthy time

that caused the DVT rather than the flight itself, so they tested a

group of 71 people who sat throughout an eight-hour flight and then

sat in a cinema for eight hours.

The volunteers' blood was tested after the flight, and clotting

activity had risen by 30 per cent. However, it had decreased after

watching the films, and it decreased even further after eight hours

of regular activities. Women who were taking the contraceptive pill

were especially susceptible to blood clotting.

Researchers aren't sure quite why flying should have this effect,

but assume it must have something to do with cabin pressure and low

oxygen levels in the aircraft.

(Source: The Lancet, 2006; 367: 832-8).

 

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