JAMA 18 July 2012 Vol 308 247 The coming of interferon beta as a treatment for multiple sclerosis in the mid-1990s marked a turning point. For patients with MS, it was the first glimmer of hope that there might be effective treatment on the way, even though it was costly and came with unpleasant side-effects, […]
Arch Intern Med 9 July 2012 Vol 172 988 The moors around Sheffield which I used to frequent in my youth remained much the same as in 1813, when John Farey made his list of the “noxious and useless plants” to be found in the Peak District. “The following are a few Memorandums that I […]
NEJM 5 July 2012 Vol 367 11 Eltrombopag is a name which has moved me to poetry in the past, and there is a grave danger of this happening again. It is, you remember, an orally available thrombopoietin mimetic which can be used to treat thrombocytopenia. In this phase 2 trial it was used to […]
Arch Intern Med 25 June 2012 Vol 172 909 The Archives are about to mutate into JAMA Internal Medicine, but I generally find them a better read than JAMA proper. One reason is the abundance of lively comment—and in the case of this paper on sex differences in the protective effect of statins, I find […]
JAMA 27 June 2012 Vol 307 2595 Of all the things that made me glad to retire from general practice two years ago, pay for performance must top the list. Here’s a Viewpoint piece from the USA which explains why: “Focusing on specific outcomes does not reward skills or result in managing complexity, solving problems, […]
JAMA 20 June 2012 Vol 307 2491 Most clinicians assume that the agencies which license new drugs—the Food and Drug Administration in the USA, or the European Medicines Agency over here—apply rigorous standards of effectiveness and safety before they let loose the latest products on the wider public. In fact they can only go by […]
JAMA 13 June 2012 Vol 307 2383 It is surprising how long and valuable a period people can survive for with malignant pleural effusion. I worked beside such a person for 18 months while she adjusted her hectic schedule to lie down occasionally and drain her indwelling pleural catheter. To read more about her last […]
JAMA 6 June 2012 Vol 307 2269 As I near my fifteenth year of writing comments on the medical journals every weekend, I sometimes envy columnists who can write their copy ahead of time and take the odd week—or even month—off. I don’t have any prepared store of fine phrases or worked up indignation, but […]
NEJM 31 May 2012 Vol 366 2065 “Hey postman, I just saw that parcel move!” “Don’t worry buddy, that one’s fulla chicks.” Such exchanges cannot be uncommon in a country where live poultry is sent cheeping through the post at the rate of more than a million kilos per year; and how these poor fluffy […]
JAMA 23 May 2012 Vol 307 2161 Daytime sleepiness is one of the main reasons for treating obstructive sleep apnoea, another one being the risk of cardiovascular events and hypertension in untreated OSA. Continuous positive airway pressure is the standard treatment, and observational evidence suggests that as well as keeping people more alert by day, […]