Drug Side Effects

Manny Hamelburg, 68, a retired businessman, had fought prostate cancer for years. First, he tried radiation, then a drug with side effects that nearly killed him, and finally Lupron, a drug that blocks production of testosterone, the hormone that can fuel prostate cancer. The cancer disappeared. But life was miserable. Without normal levels of testosterone, Hamelburg says, he had no energy, and "zero libido for seven years. I was like a eunuch. I was chemically castrated. Sex was just hugs."

As women age, they find themselves at greater risk of developing a variety of health problems. Should osteopenia be one of them? The condition was recognized nearly 20 years ago by the World Health Organization as a potential precursor to osteoporosis, a severe thinning of the bones that can lead to increased risk of bone fracture. The idea was that women whose bones had started to thin could take action to reverse the trend before it was too late. Osteopenia is identified by comparing a woman's bone density with that of a "young healthy adult" at peak bone density, around age 30. The problem is, all women — and, to a lesser extent, men — begin to lose bone mass in midlife after the natural renewal process plateaus.

As more and more Americans take cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb has carved out a niche investigating a less-publicized aspect of these cardiac wonder drugs: patients' complaints of memory loss, irritability and nerve and muscle pain. Golomb, an assistant professor of medicine at UC San Diego, also leads a five-year, $5-million study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

There's an old Jerry Seinfeld joke many pharmacists know all too well. It's the one in which he describes their "whole job" as taking pills from a big bottle and putting them in a little bottle. "I think that's how a lot of people see us," says Jeff Goad, an associate professor at the USC School of Pharmacy, with both frustration and good humor. FOR THE RECORD: Pharmacist advice: A Nov. 30 article about the role of pharmacists in providing drug information stated that pharmacists are generally paid on the basis of how many prescriptions they fill.

Many parents slather Vicks VapoRub on their sniffling, coughing kids when they're sick -- because, by gosh, that's what their parents did to them. For children under the age of 2, the folksy remedy could be dangerous, researchers warned today.

A powerful and potentially addictive painkiller used by millions of Americans is causing rapid hearing loss, even deafness, in some patients who are misusing the drug, according to hearing researchers in Los Angeles and elsewhere. So far, at least 48 patients have been identified by doctors at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles and several other medical centers who have treated patients with sudden hearing loss.

Desperate to help their autistic children, hundreds of parents nationwide are turning to an unproven and potentially damaging treatment: multiple high doses of a drug sometimes used to chemically castrate sex offenders. The therapy is based on a theory, unsupported by mainstream medicine, that autism is caused by a harmful link between mercury and testosterone. Children with autism have too much of the hormone, according to the theory, and a drug called Lupron can fix that.

The government has accused pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. of failing to report serious side effects of its drugs, saying it found violations dating to 1983. Federal law requires drug makers to tell the Food and Drug Administration of serious side effects within 15 days so the government can decide quickly if the problem is a fluke or threatens public health.

A handful of drugs that are commonly prescribed for Parkinson's disease can convert a tiny fraction of patients into compulsive gamblers in as little as a month, according to a study published today in the journal Archives of Neurology. The study is one of several to show the link and confirms that the drug pramipexole -- widely prescribed under the brand name Mirapex -- is the most likely to cause the rare side effect. Dr. M. Leann Dodd, a psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Teenagers and young adults suffering from severe, scarring acne may ultimately lose the most effective treatment for the condition. Swiss-based Roche Holding quietly pulled its blockbuster drug Accutane off the market in June amid early signs that the drug may be linked to inflammatory bowel disease. And last week, a study was released that quantified those risks, finding that users of the medication have almost twice the odds of developing a serious bowel disorder as nonusers.

The significant cardiovascular risks linked to Vioxx could have been identified nearly four years before the anti-inflammatory medication was taken off the market, a new study has concluded, but consumers and physicians didn't have access to such information at the time. "We need comprehensive, transparent, independent access to clinical-trial data in order to do a much better job of making this information available to the public," said the study's lead author, Dr. Joseph S. Ross, an assistant professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday warned consumers not to take popular heartburn medications Nexium or Prilosec if they use Plavix, a widely prescribed blood thinner that guards against heart attack and stroke. The two heartburn formulations can reduce the protective blood-thinning effect of Plavix by nearly half, according to a study undertaken at the request of the FDA by the blood thinner's marketers, Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Nexium and Prilosec inhibit a liver enzyme that is involved in converting Plavix into active form.

Teenagers and young adults suffering from severe, scarring acne may ultimately lose the most effective treatment for the condition. Swiss-based Roche Holding quietly pulled its blockbuster drug Accutane off the market in June amid early signs that the drug may be linked to inflammatory bowel disease. And last week, a study was released that quantified those risks, finding that users of the medication have almost twice the odds of developing a serious bowel disorder as nonusers.

Allergan Inc., maker of wrinkle treatment Botox, is challenging the government's ban on marketing off-label uses for pharmaceuticals. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the Irvine company argued that it should be allowed to give doctors information about using Botox for treatments not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including bladder problems, muscle spasms and headaches. Botox is approved by the FDA for use cosmetically as a wrinkle treatment and medically for eye-muscle disorders, excessive underarm sweating and cervical dystonia in adults, which causes abnormal head positions and neck pain.

Desperate to help their autistic children, hundreds of parents nationwide are turning to an unproven and potentially damaging treatment: multiple high doses of a drug sometimes used to chemically castrate sex offenders. The therapy is based on a theory, unsupported by mainstream medicine, that autism is caused by a harmful link between mercury and testosterone. Children with autism have too much of the hormone, according to the theory, and a drug called Lupron can fix that.

Late last month, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that makers of the drug metoclopramide must put the strongest so-called black-box warning on the product's package insert. Also sold as Reglan, Octamide and Maxolon, metoclopramide is used to treat certain gastrointestinal problems. If taken chronically, it can cause a serious neurological disorder called tardive dyskinesia (TD). -- What's metoclopramide?

LOVE'S first rush is a private madness between two people, all-consuming and, if mutually felt, endlessly wonderful. Couples think about the other obsessively -- on a roller coaster of euphoria when together, longing when apart. "It's temporary insanity," says Helen Fisher, an evolutionary anthropologist at Rutgers University. Now, from her studies of the brains of lovers in the throes of the initial tumble, Fisher has developed a controversial theory. She and her collaborator, psychiatrist J.

washington -- Army Master Sgt. Harold Kinamon entered a military hospital in Ohio for routine respiratory surgery to help him sleep better. The operation, in October 2005, progressed smoothly. He went home with nothing more than a raw throat and a painkiller contained in an adhesive patch on his skin. That night, Kinamon, 41, died in his sleep -- killed by an overdose of the drug delivered through the patch.

Three patients taking the Genentech Inc. drug Raptiva are believed to have died of a rare brain infection, a known risk with the skin-clearing treatment, according to federal health officials. The Food and Drug Administration confirmed three cases and a possible fourth of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML, which causes swelling of the brain and is usually fatal. All the cases were reported in the last six months.

Many parents slather Vicks VapoRub on their sniffling, coughing kids when they're sick -- because, by gosh, that's what their parents did to them. For children under the age of 2, the folksy remedy could be dangerous, researchers warned today.