Sympathectomy (ETS or ESB) can alleviate social phobia and common fears such as fear of flying, heights, open spaces, or the darkness

Is sympathectomy the new lobotomy?

"ESB may also alleviate social phobia and common fears such as fear of flying, heights, open spaces, or the darkness. In addition, it can be used to decrease trembling of the body, hands, and voice, even stuttering. It may help in alcoholism or drug withdrawal, because these are often linked with social anxiety. 
Sympathetic block is a gentle and exact endoscopic procedure. It is performed as day surgery under light anesthesia."

http://www.sympatix.fi/?lang=en

Sympathetic chain clipping for hyperhidrosis is not a reversible procedure (as many surgeons claim)

Ten days after clipping, all sympathetic chains displayed evident Wallerian degeneration. Twenty days after clipping, Wallerian degeneration of myelinated fibers was more widespread and also more striking. Thirty days after clipping, a very marked macrophagic reaction was visible, with multiple signs of phagocytosis of myelin debris. By 30 days post operation and 20 days after clip removal, a few residual myelin and amyelinated fibers were visible. These findings suggest that axon regeneration is not possible. CONCLUSIONS There are Wallerian degeneration and axon loss 10 days after clipping. The almost total absence of myelinated and amyelinated fibers following clip removal suggests that there was no nerve regeneration, and that therefore clipping cannot be considered a reversible technique.

Surg Endosc. 2012 May ;26 (5):1258-63  22083329 

Intense pain following sympathectomy - a rarely mentioned side-effect of the nerve injury/surgery

Intrapleural analgesia after endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy.

Patrícia Gomes da Silva, Daniele Cristina Cataneo, Fernanda Leite, Erica Nishida Hasimoto, Guilherme Antonio Moreira de Barros

Postgraduate Program in Anesthesiology, Botucatu School of Medicine, UNESP, Bauru, SP, Brazil.

PURPOSE To compare analgesia traditionally used for thoracic sympathectomy to intrapleural ropivacaine injection in two different doses. METHODS Twenty-four patients were divided into three similar groups, and all of them received intravenous dipyrone. Group A received intravenous tramadol and intrapleural injection of saline solution. Group B received intrapleural injection of 0.33% ropivacaine, and Group C 0.5% ropivacaine. The following aspects were analyzed: inspiratory capacity, respiratory rate and pain. Pain was evaluated in the immediate postoperative period by means of the visual analog scale and over a one-week period. RESULTS In Groups A and B, reduced inspiratory capacity was observed in the postoperative period. In the first postoperative 12 hours, only 12.5% of the patients in Groups B and C showed intense pain as compared to 25% in Group A. In the subsequent week, only one patient in Group A showed mild pain while the remainder reported intense pain. In Group B, half of the patients showed intense pain, and in Group C, only one presented intense pain. CONCLUSION Intrapleural analgesia with ropivacaine resulted in less pain in the late postoperative period with better analgesic outcomes in higher doses, providing a better ventilatory pattern.
http://lib.bioinfo.pl/meid:154350/pmid

Pharma payments to doctors stay behind closed doors ... for now

Pharma payments to doctors stay behind closed doors ... for now: "Patients will remain in the dark about whether their treating doctors receive payments from pharmaceutical companies that could influence prescribing habits, after a bill aimed at increasing transparency ground to a halt on Monday. The payments may be indirect (though conference sponsorship or funds to travel to or attend conferences) or direct (though consultation fees).

The Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee rejected the bill, agreeing with government, industry and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) that self-regulation is the preferred approach."

why do processes intended to prevent or reduce bias fail? Why we can’t trust clinical guidelines?

“On 13 April 1990, in an unprecedented action, the US National Institutes of Health faxed a letter to every physician in the US on how to correctly prescribe a breakthrough treatment for acute spinal cord injury. Many neurosurgeons were sceptical of the evidence that lay behind the new recommendation to give high dose steroids, yet when two respected organisations released a review and a guideline recommending the treatment, they felt obliged to give it. Now, over two decades later, new guidelines warn against the serious harms of high dose steroids. This case and others like it point to the ethical difficulties that doctors face when biased guidelines are promoted and raise the question: why do processes intended to prevent or reduce bias fail?"

http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f3830

http://ehln.org/?p=29917#sthash.93DXaLjH.dpbs

21% of seniors on risky meds; more in U.S. South | Brown University News and Events

21% of seniors on risky meds; more in U.S. South | Brown University News and Events: "PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — More than one in five seniors with Medicare Advantage plans received a prescription for a potentially harmful “high-risk medication” in 2009, according to an analysis by Brown University public health researchers. The questionable prescriptions were significantly more common in the Southeast United States, as well as among women and people living in relatively poor areas.

The demographic trends in the analysis, based on Medicare data from more than 6 million patients, suggest that differences in the rates of prescription of about 110 medications deemed risky for the elderly cannot be explained merely by the individual circumstances of patients, said lead author Danya Qato, a pharmacist and doctoral candidate in health services research at Brown."

Consumers lose out as TGA reform turns into a hot potato

Consumers lose out as TGA reform turns into a hot potato: "We do need to fix the TGA and the regulation of health products (drugs, devices and “supplements”). The cost of regulatory incapacity – lack of coherent legislation, capture by stakeholders, lack of expertise, unwillingness to take action – significantly outweighs both the TGA’s and the ACCC’s budgets."

'via Blog this'

Consumers lose out as TGA reform turns into a hot potato

Consumers lose out as TGA reform turns into a hot potato: "Let’s look first at regulatory incapacity, specifically the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) – the national pharmaceuticals and medical devices regulator. It’s an agency that’s too important to abolish; we can’t start again from scratch.

Unfortunately, it’s not performing very well – resulting in both serious harm to thousands of Australians and a burden to the taxpayer many times greater than its budget. When the TGA fails, you pay the price through increased public health costs and lower national productivity. And it’s immune from legal action over that failure.

Recent examples of its incapacity are failures regarding breast implants and hip implants. The government has responded with a bill that, in part, is an admission of defeat."

'Deceitful' Big Pharma accused of putting lives at risk

'Deceitful' Big Pharma accused of putting lives at risk: "Patients are being deceived into taking drugs they don't need, that don't work or may put lives at risk, according to a scathing review of the influence big drug companies have on healthcare.

Drug companies ''masterfully influenced'' medicine, a joint review by Australian, British and US researchers has found, describing how the enormous profit involved in making and selling drugs gave the industry power to influence every stage of the health system.

''As a result of these interferences, the benefits of drugs and other products are often exaggerated and their potential harms are downplayed,'' their research, published in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation, found.

A co-author of the paper, Emmanuel Stamatakis, from the University of Sydney's school of public health, said it was ''entirely illogical'' to rely on the pharmaceutical industry to fund medical research."

Drug companies pay doctors £40m for travel and expenses | Society | The Guardian

Drug companies pay doctors £40m for travel and expenses | Society | The Guardian: "companies are paying an estimated £40m a year to British doctors in service fees, flights, hotel and other travel expenses, according to the trade body that represents pharmaceutical companies.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) said that most of the 44 biggest companies had now revealed how much they paid doctors to help market their drugs. Its aggregated total of £40m is based on 35 suppliers who have shared precise information with the body and estimates for the rest.

The largest British group, GlaxoSmithKline, spent £1.9m on fees for advice and consultancy on 1,517 UK-based doctors, an average of £1,252 each. It also sponsored 1,022 doctors and other healthcare professionals to attend scientific conferences and meetings, at a total cost of £887,294 – an average of £868 per trip.

Doctors have always denied that taking drug company money influences their judgement in any way about a medicine, but suspicions have lingered."

'via Blog this'

Victims of faulty breast implants were let down by the TGA

Victims of faulty breast implants were let down by the TGA: "The announcement this week by plaintiff law firm Tindall Gask Bentley that it was abandoning a class action against the Australian distributors of Poly Implant Prosthese (PIP) breast implants illustrates critical defects in Australia’s regulatory framework for medical devices.

For five of the eight years that Medical Vision Australia Pty Ltd (MVA) was the sole Australian distributor of PIP implants, it apparently had no product liability insurance. The company is now in liquidation. There is no point in pursuing MVA, because there simply won’t be sufficient assets to compensate victims. The French manufacturer is facing criminal prosecution, and is also bankrupt."

Report recommends Qld doctors face criminal probe - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Report recommends Qld doctors face criminal probe - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): "A former medical board investigator says a report recommending criminal charges be considered against six Queensland doctors should go further.

The report is the result of an investigation lead by former Fitzgerald inquiry prosecutor and Brisbane barrister Jeff Hunter.

Mr Hunter was hired by the State Government following whistleblower complaints last year, and asked to determine if charges should be laid against doctors who were disciplined over the deaths or harming of their patients.

The ABC has obtained a copy of the report, which recommends six doctors be referred to police for possible criminal charges involving 23 cases.

But whistleblower and former investigator for the Medical Board of Queensland, Jo Barber, says that figure should be closer to 100.

"I am very surprised that they have only chosen to look at six doctors," she said.

"I worked at the medical board and I am familiar with the files there and there are many, many more than six doctors that should be investigated for criminal offences."

'via Blog this'

Six Queensland doctors face criminal charges over harm or death to their patients

Six Queensland doctors face criminal charges over harm or death to their patients | The Australian: "SIX Queensland doctors have been referred to police and risk facing criminal charges over the harm or death of their patients.

Health minister Lawrence Springborg says up to 11 medical bungles had been attributed to one practitioner.

The potential police action was one of four recommendations in a report from top criminal law specialist and former crown prosecutor Jeffrey Hunter SC into allegations of medical malpractice by Queensland doctors.

That report was sparked by former medical board investigator turned whistleblower Jo Barber, who lifted the lid on the issue last year.

Mr Springborg says incidents in the report were from public and private hospitals and private clinics from across the state.

It will prompt law changes to alter the way medical malpractice claims are handled in the future, he says."

'via Blog this'

serious crimes committed by QLD doctors and then covered up by our oversight authorites

Vindicated CMC Messenger and Critic to attend PCMC public inquiry: ""This PCMC enquiry has obviously uncovered a culture of corruption and/or dysfunction within the CMC. It has vindicated Jo Barber’s and my public warning issued last year about corruption and/or dysfunction in the CMC ” said Mr Messenger.

It’s now up to Premier Newman to release the findings of the final CMC reports (Mr Hunter SC)  ordered by former Judge Richard Chesterman and prompted by Ms Barber’s public interest disclosures to the crime watchdog over a year ago. The Hunter report could expose serious crimes committed by QLD doctors and then covered up by our oversight authorites including the CMC, QLD Health and AHPRA.

The release of the Hunter report could further vindicate Ms Barber and my actions, better protect QLD patients and bring criminal doctors to justice. Premier Newman who launched an extraordinary personal attack on me on SKY TV a year ago - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OnjH5afz3U  regarding this matter, must now give a guarantee, that the Hunter SC report’s release is not being delayed for political reasons linked to the upcoming federal election campaign in Hinkler.”"

'via Blog this'

Trouble in the Gap: A Bioethical and Sociological Analysis of Informed Consent for High-Risk Medical Procedures - Springer

Trouble in the Gap: A Bioethical and Sociological Analysis of Informed Consent for High-Risk Medical Procedures - Springer: "we argue that “informed” consent is a process that is usually incomplete, despite trappings and assumptions that help to create the illusion of completeness."

Why the TGA should make it harder for people to get Xanax

Why the TGA should make it harder for people to get Xanax: "This class of drug poses significant risks of misuse and dependence, paradoxical reactions, disinhibition, amnesia and intoxication"

Complications common after surgery for hand sweating and facial flushing

http://ltarkiv.lakartidningen.se/2001/temp/pda22739.pdf

Läkartidningen ƒ No. 15 ƒ ƒ 2001 Volume 98

in Swedish,

but you can have the article translated here

In the setting of sympathectomy, interference with any of the effectors evokes immediate, precipitous declines in blood pressure

"From the finding that removal of the sympathetic nerves did not affect blood pressure much, Cannon inferred that the sympathetic nervous system did not contribute to blood pressure in intact, undisturbed organism. In the 1980s, however, several reports showed  that sympathectomy compensatorily activates other effectors, such as the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, the vasopressin system, and the adrenal medulla, and compensatory activation of these effectors maintains blood pressure at approximately normal levels. In the setting of sympathectomy, interference with any of the effectors evokes immediate, precipitous declines in blood pressure. Because Cannon was so firmly convinced of the functional unity of the sympathoadrenal system, which would be activated only in emergencies, he never considered adequately the possibility that the sympathetic nervous system might indeed contribute to levels of blood pressure and other monitored variables under resting conditions." 

Adrenaline and the Inner World:  An Introduction to Scientific Integrative Medicine

David S. Goldstein

JHU Press, 01/04/2008 - Medical - 328 pages

Ethiopian women in Israel 'given contraceptive without consent'

Ethiopian women in Israel 'given contraceptive without consent' | World news | guardian.co.uk: "Israel's health ministry is investigating claims that Ethiopian women are being injected with a controversial contraceptive without their knowledge or consent.

Thousands of Ethiopian women are said to be receiving shots of Depo-Provera every three months in Israeli clinics. The contraceptive stops menstruation and has been linked to fertility problems and osteoporosis.

Yaakov Litzman, Israel's deputy minister of health, who has previously denied the practice, will lead the inquiry, a spokesperson announced on Wednesday.

The phenomenon was uncovered when social workers noticed the birth rate among Ethiopian immigrants halving in a decade. An Israeli documentary investigating the scandal was aired in December and prompted a popular outcry."

'via Blog this'

Genital removing doctor Reeves jailed for extra 18 months

Genital removing doctor Reeves jailed for extra 18 months: "Former gynaecologist Graeme Reeves will serve at least an extra 18 months in jail for assaulting patients, including cutting off one woman's genitalia."

BioEdge: UK report examines catastrophic failure at government hospital

BioEdge: UK report examines catastrophic failure at government hospital: "A report in 2010 into Stafford Hospital found that hundreds of patients had died unnecessarily and that conditions were sometimes unspeakably bad. Some patients were left in excrement-soaked sheets and some had to drink from dirty flower vases because nurses failed to bring them water.

A second report by a leading barrister, Robert Francis, into the causes of this disaster makes depressing reading. He found that there had been a total collapse of the system at the Mid Staffordshire NHS [National Health Service] Foundation Trust, which is responsible for running the hospital. In the report, which was released earlier this month, Mr Francis writes:

“This is a story of appalling and unnecessary suffering of hundreds of people. They were failed by a system which ignored the warning signs and put corporate self-interest and cost control ahead of patients and their safety. Patients were let down by the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. There was a lack of care, compassion, humanity and leadership. The most basic standards of care were not observed, and fundamental rights to dignity were not respected.”

“Questioning the status quo in medicine is not easy,” Dr Harlan Krumholz, of Yale School of Medicine

BioEdge: Doctors slow to blow whistle: "A lawsuit against the medical products giant Johnson & Johnson has raised questions about doctors’ willingness to warn colleagues and patients about bad drugs or devices. According to the New York Times, memos brought as evidence in the first of 10,000 lawsuits over a faulty hip replacement show that doctors were very reluctant to be whistleblowers.

“Questioning the status quo in medicine is not easy,” Dr Harlan Krumholz, of Yale School of Medicine, told the NYT. Doctors also shy away from the work of reporting errors and failures. “The Food and Drug Administration relies on physicians to help monitor product safety by alerting the agency to adverse patient reactions, doctors usually do not make such filings, saying they are too busy for the paperwork,” says the NYT.

Financial ties also influence doctors.  “If someone has been paying you or employing you, it is very difficult to blow the whistle,” said Professor George Loewenstein, of Carnegie-Mellon University. “It offends our sense of loyalty.”"

BioEdge: Israel halts underhanded contraceptive injections for Ethiopian migrants

BioEdge: Israel halts underhanded contraceptive injections for Ethiopian migrants: "Years of rumours that Ethiopian women were pressured into having contraceptive injections by Israeli officials have finally been confirmed. The Health Ministry has ordered immigration officials in Ethiopia and health workers in Israel to stop coercing or coaxing women into accepting the long-lasting injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera.

The directive instructed doctors “not to renew prescriptions of Depo Provera to women of Ethiopian origin or any other women who, for whatever reason, may not understand the treatment’s implications.” They should also ask patients why they want to take the shot, using a translator if necessary. The Ministry did not confirm or acknowledge any wrongdoing.

Ethiopians who claim to be Jews are welcome to migrate to Israel under the Law of Return, but they face discrimination and have not always integrated well into Israeli society. Births among Ethiopian women have dropped by 50% in the last decade, according to a report by the “Vacuum” investigative news program on Israeli Educational Television. “This story reeks of racism, paternalism and arrogance. It’s a story to be ashamed of,” journalist Gal Gabai concluded. "

Not all doctors believe that honesty is the best policy, according to a new survey published in Health Affairs

Your Doctor May Be Keeping Secrets - ABC News: "Not all doctors believe that honesty is the best policy, according to a new survey published in Health Affairs. When a team of researchers surveyed almost 2,000 physicians nationwide, they discovered a disturbing trend of white coats telling some white lies:

34 percent of doctors don't think they should disclose serious medical errors to patients, and nearly 20 percent said they didn't disclose an error last year for fear of a malpractice case.

Almost two-fifths of doctors don't think they need to share their financial relationships with drug companies to patients.

Just over 10 percent of physicians say they told their patients something that wasn't true in the past year."

'via Blog this'

Effectiveness of antidepressants: an evidence myth constructed from a thousand randomized trials?

Antidepressants, in particular newer agents, are among the most widely prescribed medications worldwide with annual sales of billions of dollars. The introduction of these agents in the market has passed through seemingly strict regulatory control. Over a thousand randomized trials have been conducted with antidepressants. Statistically significant benefits have been repeatedly demonstrated and the medical literature is flooded with several hundreds of "positive" trials (both pre-approval and post-approval). However, two recent meta-analyses question this picture. The first meta-analysis used data that were submitted to FDA for the approval of 12 antidepressant drugs. While only half of these trials had formally significant effectiveness, published reports almost ubiquitously claimed significant results. "Negative" trials were either left unpublished or were distorted to present "positive" results. The average benefit of these drugs based on the FDA data was of small magnitude, while the published literature suggested larger benefits. A second meta-analysis using also FDA-submitted data examined the relationship between treatment effect and baseline severity of depression. Drug-placebo differences increased with increasing baseline severity and the difference became large enough to be clinically important only in the very small minority of patient populations with severe major depression. In severe major depression, antidepressants did not become more effective, simply placebo lost effectiveness. These data suggest that antidepressants may be less effective than their wide marketing suggests. Short-term benefits are small and long-term balance of benefits and harms is understudied. I discuss how the use of many small randomized trials with clinically non-relevant outcomes, improper interpretation of statistical significance, manipulated study design, biased selection of study populations, short follow-up, and selective and distorted reporting of results has built and nourished a seemingly evidence-based myth on antidepressant effectiveness and how higher evidence standards, with very large long-term trials and careful prospective meta-analyses of individual-level data may reach closer to the truth and clinically useful evidence.
http://www.peh-med.com/content/3/1/14

Pfizer to Pay Record 23 Billion Fine

Pfizer to Pay Record 23 Billion Fine: "In the largest health care fraud settlement in history, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer must pay $2.3 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company illegally promoted uses of four of its drugs, including the painkiller Bextra. The other drugs were the antipsychotic Geodon, the antibiotic Zyvox, and the anti-epileptic Lyrica.
Once the Food and Drug Administration approves drugs, doctors can prescribe them off-label for any use, but makers can't market them for anything other than approved uses. Pfizer subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn pleaded guilty to a felony violation for promoting off-label uses of Bextra. At the FDA's request, Pfizer pulled Bextra off the market in April 2005 because of its risks."

'via Blog this'

Flu Vaccine Increases Risk of Serious Pandemic Flu Illness

Flu Vaccine Increases Risk of Serious Pandemic Flu Illness: "The Canadian press recently broke the story that new research confirms initial findings that the flu vaccine appeared to actually increase people's risk of getting sick with H1N1, and cause more serious bouts of illness to boot.

According to the Vancouver Sun:1

"Researchers, led by Vancouver's Dr. Danuta Skowronski, an influenza expert at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, noticed in the early weeks of the [2009 H1N1] pandemic that people who got a flu shot for the 2008-09 winter seemed to be more likely to get infected with the pandemic virus than people who hadn't received a flu shot. Five studies done in several provinces showed the same unsettling results."

New Study Confirms: Flu Vaccine Really Does Increase Your Risk of Serious Pandemic Flu Illness"
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-04/vaccines-may-have-increased-swine-flu-risk/1967508

PFIZER has been fined for breaches of the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct over misleading promotional material

PFIZER has been fined for breaches of the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct over misleading promotional material for the arthritis drug celecoxib (Celebrex) and pneumococcal vaccine Prevenar 13.

The separate complaints resulted in fines of $35,000 and $10,000 respectively and orders to cease using the misleading claims.

The $35,000 fine was imposed for claims about celecoxib contained on the cover of promotional material that implied osteoarthritis caused other conditions, including depression, sleep disorders, neuropathic pain and musculoskeletal pain. The complaint was made by a health professional.

Initially Pfizer was also found to be in breach of the code on another count, for a comparison to oral opioid analgesics. An $85,000 fine was imposed for the two breaches.

Medical Observer, 23rd Jan 2013

after sympathectomy "the extremity will be more apt to have disturbance of circulation and is left unprotected from fluctuation in circulation"

1. Sympathectomy is analogous to the act of killing the messenger. The sympathetic nervous system has the critical job of properly controlling and preserving the circulation in different parts of the body, especially in the extremities. By paralyzing the system, the extremity will be more apt to have disturbance of circulation and is left unprotected from fluctuation in circulation.

Sympathectomy is similar to permanently removing the central heat and air-conditioning system and never replacing it because of malfunction.

Sympathectomy permanently damages the temperature regulatory system. The reason sympathectomy does not cause side effects other than ineffective control of pain as well as impotence and orthostatic hypotension is because it is invariably partial and incomplete.H. Hooshmand, M.D.: Chronic Pain

View Larger Image

9780849386671

Chronic Pain: Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Prevention and Management

Hooshang Hooshmand

ISBN 10: 0849386675 / 0-8493-8667-5 

ISBN 13: 9780849386671

Publisher: CRC Pr I Llc

Publication Date: 1993

Binding: Hardcover

German doctors shaken by corruption allegations

BioEdge: German doctors shaken by corruption allegations: "The German Medical Association has investigated nearly 1,000 cases of corrupt doctors over the past few years, according to its president, Frank Ulrich Montgomery.

Dr Montgomery told Der Spiegel that more than half of the case involved alleged bribes from an Israeli pharmaceutical company, Ratiopharm. The doctors were paid for prescribing its drugs to their patients. This was “clearly prohibited”, says Dr Montgomery.

“The Medical Association punished 163 Ratiopharm doctors after state prosecutors made the files available to us,” said Montgomery. He wants the government to pass legislation which would permit the Medical Association itself to conduct searches and confiscate files.

However, this is opposed by health insurance companies. “Corruption is not a minor offence which doctors can regulate amongst themselves,” said an industry spokesman."

'via Blog this'

Doctor earning $1m and huge debts: the state of our hospitals

Doctor earning $1m and huge debts: the state of our hospitals: "A MILLION-DOLLAR doctor, thousands of unpaid bills and debts that exceed assets: that's the financial shape of NSW hospitals says the Auditor-General.

Six employees earned more than half a million dollars over the past three years, and one was paid more than $1 million in overtime and call-backs over three years.

The Auditor-General, Peter Achterstraat, said he found it astounding that one person could earn so much overtime."

'via Blog this'

Register all trials, report all results – it's long overdue

Register all trials, report all results – it's long overdue: "If researchers go to the effort of getting funds, recruiting patients, and following them up, you would think that they would be keen to publish the results. So it’s surprising that our best estimates show around half of all completed clinical trials have never been published in academic journals. And the half we have is biased towards trials with positive results."

'via Blog this'

Perks put patients at risk - claim

Perks put patients at risk - claim: "A SENIOR Geelong Hospital anaesthetist has been accused of putting patients at risk by prescribing a drug he was effectively being paid by a pharmaceutical company to use.

A Fair Work Australia hearing was on Tuesday told Dr Mark Colson reported colleague Dr Simon Tomlinson to the ombudsman in 2007 for accepting business-class flights from Pfizer for him and his family to attend a conference in New York.

Deputy director of anaesthesia at Geelong Hospital Dr Colin Gordon said Dr Colson also alleged the hospital had the highest prescription rate of a drug called parecoxib because of Dr Tomlinson's dealings with Pfizer and that this was ''harming patients and potentially causing patients to die''."

'via Blog this'

Mass donor organ fraud shakes Germany | World news | The Guardian

Mass donor organ fraud shakes Germany | World news | The Guardian: "German medical authorities are calling for an extensive overhaul of the country's organ transplant programme after transplant centres across Germany were placed under criminal investigation over allegations that they had systematically manipulated donor waiting lists.

Scores of patients are believed to have been given priority access to donor organs after doctors falsified the severity of their illnesses to ensure they received treatment ahead of other patients in Europe.

The revelations have led to accusations of widespread corruption and dishonesty in the system, and shattered public trust. Since the scandal emerged last year as a handful of cases that were initially believed to be isolated incidents, the number of Germans willing to donate organs has plummeted."

'via Blog this'

Dollars for Docs - ProPublica

Dollars for Docs - ProPublica: "Drug companies have long kept secret details of the payments they make to doctors and other health professionals for promoting their drugs. But 12 companies have begun publicizing the information, some because of legal settlements. ProPublica pulled their disclosures into a database so patients can search for their doctor. Accepting payments isn’t necessarily wrong, but it can raise ethical issues."

'via Blog this'

in the absence of autonomic arousal, behavior that appears emotional will not be experienced as emotional

"In the presence of a barking dog, for example, the sympathectomized cats manifested almost all of the signs of feline rage. Finally, Cannon notes the report of Dana (1921) that a patient with a spinal-cord lesion and almost totally without visceral sensation still manifested emotionality.
For either the Jamesian or the present formulation such data are crucial, since both views demand visceral arousal as a necessary condition for emotional arousal. When faced with this evidence, James's defenders (e.g., Wenger, 1950; Mandler, 1962) have consistently made the point that the apparently emotional behavior manifested by sympathectomizied animals and men is well-learned behavior, acquired long before sympathectomy. There is a dual implication in this position: first, that sympathetic arousal facilitates the acquisition of emotional behavior, and second, that sympathectomized subjects act but do not feel emotional. There is a small but growing evidence supporting these contentions. Wynne and Solomon (1955) have demonstrated that sympathectomized dogs acquire an avoidance response considerably more slowly than control dogs. Further, on extinction trials most of their 13 sympathectomized animals extinguished quickly, whereas not a single one of the 30 control dogs gave any indication of extinction over 200 trials. Of particular interest are two dogs who were sympathectomized after they had acquired the avoidance response. On extinction trials these two animals behaved precisely like the control dogs - giving no indication of extinction. Thus, when deprived of visceral innervation, animals are quite slow in acquiring emotionally-linked avoidance responses and in general, quick to extinguish such responses." (p. 163)

"A line of thought stimulated by the Wynne and Solomon (1955) and the Hohmann (1962) studies may indeed be the answer to Cannon's observations that there can be emotional behavior without visceral activity. From the evidence of these studies, it would appear, first, that autonomic arousal greatly facilitates the acquisition of emotional behavior but it is not necessary for its maintenance if the behavior is acquired prior to sympathectomy; and second, that in the absence of autonomic arousal, behavior that appears emotional will not be experienced as emotional." (p. 167)

Psychobiological Approaches to Social Behavior

P. Herbert Leiderman, David Shapiro, Harvard Medical School. Dept. of Psychiatry, United States. Office of Naval Research - 1964 - 203 pages

Controversial Surgery for Addiction Burns Away Brain’s Pleasure Center | TIME.com

Controversial Surgery for Addiction Burns Away Brain’s Pleasure Center | TIME.com: "How far should doctors go in attempting to cure addiction? In China, some physicians are taking the most extreme measures. By destroying parts of the brain’s “pleasure centers” in heroin addicts and alcoholics, these neurosurgeons hope to stop drug cravings. But damaging the brain region involved in addictive desires risks permanently ending the entire spectrum of natural longings and emotions, including the ability to feel joy.

In 2004, the Ministry of Health in China banned this procedure due to lack of data on long term outcomes and growing outrage in Western media over ethical issues about whether the patients were fully aware of the risks.

However, some doctors were allowed to continue to perform it for research purposes—and recently, a Western medical journal even published a new study of the results. In 2007, The Wall Street Journal detailed the practice of a physician who claimed he performed 1000 such procedures to treat mental illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia and epilepsy, after the ban in 2004; the surgery for addiction has also since been done on at least that many people."

'via Blog this'

The hidden world of medical racism in the United States

The hidden world of medical racism in the United States: "The idea that discredited, repugnant ideas about racial differences might play a role in medical diagnoses and treatment today is one that doctors ought to find profoundly disturbing. The racially biased treatment of patients is a grievous violation of medical ethics and a direct threat to the dignity of the profession.

But over the past two decades, American medical literature has published hundreds of peer-reviewed studies that point to racially-motivated decisions by physicians that may do serious medical harm. The principal result of these studies has simply been more studies of the same kind."

'via Blog this'

Remove industry bias from clinical trials before it's too late

Remove industry bias from clinical trials before it's too late: "A study published today shows that clinical trials with industry sponsorship report greater benefits and fewer harmful side effects. In the discussion, the authors note that most reviews and guidelines don’t report the funding sources for the included trials."

'via Blog this'

BioEdge: Leveson Inquiry recommends reform of science reporting

BioEdge: Leveson Inquiry recommends reform of science reporting: "Remember patients: don't call something a "cure" that is not a cure."

'via Blog this'