Rimonabant, a controversial weight-loss drug, has been approved for use in the NHS

By: Jane Kirby, PA, The Independent
Wednesday, 25 June 2008

A controversial weight-loss drug has been approved for use on the NHS, it was announced today.

Rimonabant will be made available to overweight or obese patients who cannot take, or who have had no success with, two other drugs, orlistat and sibutramine.

It comes after concerns about rimonabant’s side-effects, including suicidal thoughts and depression.

Today’s news comes after the medicines watchdog said last month that it had received 720 reports of adverse drug reactions (totalling 2,123 individual reactions) in the UK since the drug launched in 2006.

Five resulted in death (one suicide, one from infection, one sudden death from an unknown cause and two heart attacks), the data, from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), showed.

Of the total number of reactions, 974 involved psychiatric disorders, of which 48 reports involved suicidal thoughts.

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US issues health warning over mercury fillings

By: Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor, The Independent
Sunday, 29 June 2008

Amalgam dental fillings – which contain the highly toxic metal mercury – pose a health risk, the world’s top medical regulatory agency has conceded.

After years of insisting the fillings are safe, the US government’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a health warning about them. It represents a landmark victory for campaigners, who say the fillings are responsible for a range of ailments, including heart conditions and Alzheimer’s disease.

Earlier this month, in an unprecedented U-turn, the FDA dropped much of its reassuring language on the fillings from its website, substituting: “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and foetuses.” It adds that when amalgam fillings are “placed in teeth or removed they release mercury vapour“, and that the same thing happens when chewing.

The FDA is now reviewing its rules and may end up restricting or banning the use of the metal.

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Nurses’ clinics to compete with GPs’ surgeries

By: Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor, The Independent
Friday, 27 June 2008

Nurses are to run their own “companies” inside the NHS to compete with traditional family doctor surgeries and provide more services to patients.

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Genetic test will identify those most at risk of breast cancer

By: Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, The Independent
Thursday, 26 June 2008

The chances of getting breast cancer vary more than sixfold among women because of their genetic inheritance but the breast screening programme fails to target those at highest risk, scientists have found.

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Online contraceptive pill service launched

PA, The Independent
Monday, 23 June 2008

Women will be able to get the Pill online without having to visit their doctor under a new service being launched today. The medical website DrThom is offering three months’ supply for £29.99.

The service will initially be offered to women already on the Pill but will soon be expanded to those who have never taken it before.

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Abortion rate hits record high among under-16s

By: Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, The Independent
Friday, 20 June 2008

The abortion rate is rising fastest among the youngest girls, official figures show. Each week in 2007, 84 children under 16 in England and Wales had abortions; three were under 14.

The annual total for under-16 abortions was up 10 per cent to 4,376. Among under-14s it was up 21 per cent. Abortions among women of all ages in England and Wales rose 2.5 per cent to 198,499.

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One in four body piercings goes wrong

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, The Independent
Friday, 13 June 2008

For many young people, piercings of all parts of the body, hung with jewellery, have become an essential fashion accessory. But they carry significant risks, according to the first study to examine the complications arising from body art.

One in 10 adults in England has had a piercing somewhere other than the ear lobe of whom more than a quarter (28 per cent) experienced complications and one in 100 was admitted to hospital.

The survey of 10,000 people over 16 in England found more than 1,000 had a piercing, which was three times more common in women than men. Navel piercings were most common among women, with nipple piercings most common among men.

Piercings were most common in the youngest age group, those aged 16 to 24, who were also most likely to suffer complications.

Swelling, infection and bleeding were frequent side effects with tongue piercings the most risky.

Serious complications resulting in hospital admission mostly occurred with piercings performed by non-specialists rather than with those carried out in a tattoo parlour or a specialist piercing shop.

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‘Dead’ patient comes around as organs are about to be removed

By John Lichfield in Paris, The Independent
Thursday, 12 June 2008

France may have to reconsider its medical definition of death after a heart-attack victim came alive in the operating theatre as doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant.

The patient, whose identity has not been revealed, recovered after a long period in intensive care and is now able to walk and talk.

The 45-year-old man owes his life to the fact that surgeons authorised to remove organs for transplant operations were not immediately available. Under experimental rules adopted in France last year, to make more organ transplants possible, the man had already reached the point where he could be officially regarded as dead. Similar rules – allowing the removal of organs when a patient’s heart has stopped and fails to respond to prolonged massage – already apply in several other European countries, including Britain.

Professor Alain Tenaillon, the organ transplant specialist at the French government’s agency of bio-medicine, told Le Monde: “All the specialist literature suggests that anyone whose heart has stopped and has been massaged correctly for more than 30 minutes, is probably brain dead. But we have to accept that there are exceptions…. There are no absolute rules in this area.”

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MS sufferer wins landmark ruling on assisted suicide

‘I love my husband and I will not put him in a situation where he could end up in prison’

By Cahal Milmo, the Independent
Thursday, 12 June 2008

A multiple sclerosis sufferer who wants her husband to aid her in ending her life has won a landmark review of the law on assisted suicide.

Two judges gave permission yesterday for Debbie Purdy to bring a High Court challenge forcing the Director of Public Prosecutions to clarify under what circumstances people can be prosecuted for helping a loved one to die.

Ms Purdy, who was diagnosed in 1994 with primary progressive MS, believes she may have as little as a year left before she is unable to perform day-to-day tasks unaided. She wants her husband, Omar Puente, to accompany her to a Swiss clinic to end her life once her suffering has become unbearable.

Euthanasia in other countries:

*Switzerland:
Since 1941, it has been legal to hasten death by assisting someone who is terminally ill or severely mentally ill but competent enough to opt for suicide. Only Switzerland lets foreigners use its non-profit clinics. Doctors can issue a lethal dose of drugs once they are satisfied of a patient’s condition. Police must be informed.

*Belgium:
A 2002 law permits euthanasia. The lethal drugs can be administered by injection or a prescribed overdose and the patient must be a Belgian resident. The law requires two doctors to be involved, and a psychologist where the competence of the patient is in question.

*Netherlands:
Voluntary euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide has been permitted since 1984, although it was not made law until 2002. Like Belgium, any decision must be made by two doctors and a psychologist where necessary.

*Oregon:
The only US state where assisted suicide is legal. A patient with an illness that will kill them within six months can request lethal drugs from a doctor. The request must be confirmed by two witnesses, one of whom cannot be related or known to the patient. Only when the patient has waited a further 15 days and reconfirmed the request can the lethal dose be given.

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Breakthrough in migraine therapy ???

By: Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, The Independent
Wednesday, 11 June 2008

New anti-migraine drugs that have fewer side effects than existing treatments could be on the market within three years, scientists said yesterday.

They have been developed thanks to improved understanding of the mechanism that makes the brain over-react to stimuli and will usher in a new era in management of the condition, experts say.

Migraine is a hereditary illness which affects an estimated six million Britons – or 15 per cent of all adults. It is caused by an “oversensitive” brain.

One of the new drugs – a rescue treatment known only by its code MK0974 – interrupts the sequence of chemical reactions in the brain that cause a migraine at a different point from existing drugs.

Studies have shown that the brain releases the chemical calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) during a migraine. Existing drugs, called triptans, block the release of the chemical. The new drug, known as a CGRP antagonist, blocks uptake of the chemical by neighbouring nerve cells.

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