Edmund's Newsletter July 22, 2008 Issue: #30 Volume 8 Join Our List In This Issue Drug Restores Speech In Alzheimer's: Experts Worry Risks In Ordering Drugs By Internet On The Rise Analysis of Quickly Stopped Rx Orders Provides New Tool for Reducing Medical Errors Patient Reports Can Add To Efforts To Identify, Reduce Adverse Events In Hospitals Gene Variations in Diverse Patient Populations Determine who Responds Best to an Antidepressant Gender Differences And Heart Disease Heart Blood Vessels Grown in the Lab -- Could Offer A Future Alternative To Bypass Surgery Believe It Or Not News From MedWatch Recently Approved Drugs/Indications FDA Recalls and Safety Alerts in the Past 60 Days Drug Shortages Quick Links Edmund's Blog Edmund's Newsletter Edmund's Web Page Past Issues SPECIAL THANKS TO Michael R. Cohen President The Institute for Safe Medication Practices and Dr. Stephen Barrett Quackwatch Some links in Edmund's Newsletter will point to a page that requires registration.  In all cases the most you will have to do is fill out a simple form to enroll as a member.  In no case will I point you to a site that requires payment to view the page. PRAY FOR PEACE © 2001,2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Join Our List Drug Restores Speech In Alzheimer's: Experts Worry Alzheimer's patients given a popular rheumatoid arthritis drug showed seemingly dramatic improvements in a small study, but some doctors worried that the early findings will raise premature hopes in patients and their families. The study, reported on Sunday in the journal BioMed Central BMC Neurology, involved 12 patients who had greatly improved language recall shortly after treatment with Enbrel, or etanercept, an anti-inflammatory drug co-marketed by Amgen and Wyeth. "We often see verbal effects within a few minutes of the first dose," said Dr. Edward Tobinick, director of the Institute for Neurological Research, a private medical group inc., in Los Angeles, who led the study. Tobinick invented and holds several patents on a special method of injecting the drug into the neck. He said he charges anywhere between $10,000 and $40,000 per patient for the treatments. Read more..... Risks In Ordering Drugs By Internet On The Rise A report from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy concludes that consumers are facing a growing risk of getting counterfeit drugs because of rising Internet sales of medical drugs, projected to reach upwards of $75 billion by 2010. The report calls for stronger enforcement legislation than current proposals in Congress. Counterfeit drugs get into the U.S. through different sources, but those through illegitimate Internet sites are of special concern, says report author Francis Palumbo, PhD, executive director of the School's Center on Drugs and Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. "When consumers buy from those, it is definitely buyer beware. They are often not licensed anywhere we are aware of," says Palumbo. He says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "has been pulling its hair out over the years trying to deal with rogue Internet sites, the terminology they [FDA] use." The report, "Policy Implications of Drug Importation," published in the journal Clinical Therapeutics, tracks the growing "challenge" to U.S. drug regulators and pharmaceutical companies from the growth of imported drugs. The report also addresses the national debate over drug importation policies. Read more..... Analysis of Quickly Stopped Rx Orders Provides New Tool for Reducing Medical Errors Penn Study Shows 66% of Medication Orders Stopped Within 45 Minutes are Bad Orders.     By studying medication orders that are withdrawn ("discontinued") by physicians within 45 minutes of their origination, researchers at The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have demonstrated a systematic and efficient method of identifying prescribing errors. The method, they say, has value to screen for medication errors and as a teaching tool for physicians and physicians-in-training. The report is published in the July/August 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Read more..... Patient Reports Can Add To Efforts To Identify, Reduce Adverse Events In Hospitals Hospitals' efforts to improve patient safety rely on several methods of monitoring and evaluating the occurrence of adverse events: including incident reports from members of the health care team, automated surveillance of clinical data, and review of medical records. A group of Massachusetts researchers report in the July 15 Annals of Internal Medicine that surveying patients about their experiences can provide additional important information. They found that nearly 23 percent of patients reported experiencing a complication during or immediately after their hospital stay, compared with about 11 percent of patients whose adverse events were identified through medical record review. "Every approach to monitoring adverse events or complications has its limitations, even record review, which has been regarded as the "gold standard," says lead author Joel Weissman, PhD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institute for Health Policy. "Our research demonstrates that patients themselves can be a valuable source of information about unexpected complications that occur as a result of medical care, both during their hospital stay and after they are discharged." While many hospitals regularly survey patients after discharge, those surveys are usually focused on patients' satisfaction with their care and not on whether they experienced injuries or complications. The current study was designed to evaluate whether patients can accurately report adverse events they experienced, the types of events patients were most likely to report and how well patient reports matched what in the medical record. It consisted of two primary phases: a telephone survey of patients admitted to 16 Massachusetts hospitals during six months in 2003 and a review of the medical records of survey participants who gave written permission for the review. Read more..... Gene Variations in Diverse Patient Populations Determine who Responds Best to an Antidepressant A new Mayo Clinic study shows that variations in the serotonin transporter gene could explain why some people with depression respond better than others to treatment with citalopram (Celexa), an antidepressant medication. The study, in the current issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, examined the serotonin transporter gene, or SLC6A4, in 1,914 study participants. The study showed that two variations in this gene have a direct bearing on how individuals might respond to citalopram. SLC6A4 produces a protein that plays an important role in achieving an antidepressant response. In this study, researchers evaluated the influence of variations in SLC6A4 in response to citalopram treatment in white, black and Hispanic patients. Researchers found that white patients with two distinct gene variations were more likely to experience remission of symptoms associated with major depression. No associations between the two variations and remission were found in black or Hispanic patients. Read more..... Gender Differences And Heart Disease Women may respond less favorably than men to cardiovascular disease (CV) drug-treatments for enlarged heart, according to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center physician-scientists. For the first time, researchers have uncovered that women derive a lesser benefit than men from two common high-blood-pressure-lowering drugs - losartan and atenolol - for the reduction of left-ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). The condition is a thickening and enlargement of muscle of the left ventricle of the heart and a marker for future heart disease. The observations were made despite results showing that blood pressure reduction was similar between genders. These important findings might explain how this underlying condition puts women at greater risk for heart disease later in life. CV is the leading cause of death in Western countries in both sexes. However, following a period of relative protection, before menopause, a woman's risk becomes significantly larger. Read more..... Heart Blood Vessels Grown in the Lab -- Could Offer A Future Alternative To Bypass Surgery Researchers say they have grown in mice the kind of functioning heart blood vessels that cardiac surgeons create with bypass operations. One ultimate goal is to replace some heart surgery with injections of laboratory-grown cells that would establish themselves in the body, providing a system of blood vessels for damaged hearts that need more oxygen, said Juan M. Melero-Martin, a co-author of a paper in the July 18 issue of the journal Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association. "We are proving the concept in mice who are compromised so that they don't reject human cells," said Melero-Martin, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston. "For clinical use, the way we envision it, if a patient has need to vascularize ischemic tissue, we can get cells from the patient ahead of time, grow them and inject them back into the patient." Ischemic tissue is starved of blood because of blocked arteries or other damage, and revascularization restores the vessels through which blood can flow to that tissue. Read more..... Believe it or not Cancer survivor wins $100,000 dream wedding A Tampa bride-to-be who defied doctors' expectations after being told she had a year to live four years ago celebrated another victory Tuesday - she and her fiancee won a $100,000 dream wedding.   Courtney Dempsey, 33, and Gary Courtney, 37, were among 40,000 couples who entered US Magazine's wedding contest. The prize includes a dress and honeymoon. "We're beyond thrilled. We're actually in a state of shock right now," Dempsey said. Dempsey was diagnosed with late-stage melanoma four years ago and doctors told her she had less than a year to live. She survived beyond that and began dating Courtney. But soon after, doctors said she needed a double mastectomy. Courtney asked Dempsey to move in with him so he could help her recover. The couple is planning a September wedding. As for her married name, Dempsey says she'll follow tradition and take her groom's name, meaning she'll go by Courtney Courtney. "I love it. I'm in sales. No one will ever forget my name," she said. News From MedWatch Keep up-to-date on all of the recent MedWatch reports that gives you timely safety information on the drugs and other medical products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by  CLICKING HERE   Recently Approved Drugs/Indications Keep up-to-date on all of the recently approved drugs and/or approved new indications on already FDA approved drugs by CLICKING HERE   FDA Recalls and Safety Alerts in the Past 60 Days: To see a list of all FDA Recalls and product safety alerts for the last 60 days CLICK HERE   Drug Shortages: As many of you are aware, many drugs in the US are either unavailable or in short supply.  To view a list of these drugs CLICK HERE   Recommend Edmund's Newsletter Edmund's Newsletter is published for only one reason and that is expand our knowledge base, join people together with like minds and to disseminate valuable information. 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