When a new drug gets tested, the results of the trials should be published for the rest of the medical world - except much of the time, negative or inconclusive findings go unreported, leaving doctors and researchers in the dark. In this impassioned talk, Ben Goldacre explains why these unreported instances of negative data are especially misleading and dangerous.
Czech doctors are prescribing psycho-pharmaceutical drugs, such as antidepressants, to more and more children, treating the symptoms rather than the causes of their condition, the daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes Thursday
Your brain doesn't like to keep secrets. Studies at the University of Texas, Austin, have shown that writing down secrets in a journal or telling a doctor your secrets actually decreases the level of stress hormones in your body. Keeping a secret, meanwhile, does the opposite.
. Frieden and public health specialists everywhere are seeking better ways to help the 44 million Americans who still smoke to quit and to keep young people from getting hooked on cigarettes. "Fewer than 2 percent of doctors smoke. Why can't we get to that rate in society as a whole?" he wondered
Doctored images can affect what we eat, how we vote and even our childhood recollections. The question scientists are asking is why there's nothing we can do to stop it.
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.