Medication

Under pressure from trainers and owners who support the use of the diuretic furosemide to prevent bleeding in race horses, the Breeders' Cup Board of Directors voted Friday to reverse a decision that would have banned the drug's use for all races at its world championships on Nov. 1-2 at Santa Anita. Instead, the Breeders' Cup will continue the medical policy it put in for this past year's world championships, banning furosemide, previously known as Lasix, for only the juvenile races.

Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner can be forcibly medicated with antipsychotic drugs, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. 9 th Circuit Court of Appeals said prison authorities have the right to treat an inmate who would otherwise be a danger to himself or others around him. Loughner, 23, has been charged with 49 felony counts in the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting rampage outside of a Tucson supermarket in...

The return of defenseman Doug Zmolek for the last two games has been overshadowed by the Kings' five-game win streak. Zmolek, who missed five games because of an irregular heartbeat, has played without being on any medication after his heart was electronically regulated for the second time within a month on Feb. 18. "I feel good now, but it took me a week to recover," said Zmolek, who has had this problem three times in his five-year NHL career and...

Jared Lee Loughner, charged with shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others in a January rampage in Tucson, can't be forced to take anti-psychotic drugs until the government shows that the drugs are absolutely necessary and likely to render him competent to stand trial, a federal appeals court has ruled. In an order made public Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary halt to the involuntary medication of Loughner, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Living with a baby who vomits and cries all the time can make a parent worried (yes, I know this first-hand).  If a doctor diagnoses a problem, and there's medication to treat that problem, it's easy to understand why parents might eagerly accept it. But it turns out, according to a study this week in the journal Pediatrics, that use of the diagnosis gastroesophageal reflux disease, also called GERD - rather than just talking about the symptoms --...

Tucson shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner can be forced to take antipsychotic drugs while prison doctors try to make him sane enough to stand trial in the attack last year on then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others, a divided federal appeals court ruled Monday. Loughner's violent behavior at a prison hospital in Missouri justified his forced medication, even though a pretrial detainee might normally have the right to refuse unwanted drugs, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 ruling.

People diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are more likely to commit crimes when they are not receiving medication, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Numerous studies have shown that ADHD is associated with an increase in criminal behavior, but it has remained unclear how medication use influences this equation after adolescence. The study, which followed 25,656 Swedish people diagnosed with ADHD from 2006 to 2009, is the largest such analysis of the long-term effects of ADHD treatment.

Many people have no idea what’s in their over-the-counter pain medication, if we’re to believe the results of a new study based on only 32 participants. And we’d just as well. Our own friends' and family members' confusion suggests they don't know either. Researchers from Northwestern University asked 32 adults in Atlanta and Chicago to match name-brand medicine boxes with the main active ingredient. Although 75% of participants knew that Bayer’s main ingredient was aspirin, fewer than half knew what was in Tylenol, Aleve and Advil.

Medications to treat mental health disorders is soaring among U.S. adults, according to data released Wednesday by Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefit manager. Twenty percent of all adults said they took at least one medication to treat a mental disorder. Among women, 25% said they took such medication and 20% said they were using an antidepressant. The survey analyzed prescription drug trends among 2.5 million insured Americans from 2001 to 2010. Medco researchers also found that adults ages 20 to 44 had the greatest uptick in use of anti-anxiety medications, atypical antipsychotics and drugs to treat ADHD.

Amber, a soft-spoken, feminine 12-year-old who loves Hello Kitty and fashion design, lives with a secret. It is a secret most sixth-graders can't fathom, one she hides behind pink skirts and makeup. It is a secret that led to all her baby pictures being tucked away as though her childhood had never happened. Amber was born a boy. When she was 10, she stopped going by her given name, Aaron, and began dressing as a girl. Last year, she started taking medication to keep her from going through puberty.