Word: pill
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Clearly, much work remains to be done, particularly on cluster headaches. The pharmaceutical companies still don't have a pill designed specifically to protect against these attacks, although some doctors have had success treating them with lithium, a drug usually used to regulate the mood swings of manic depression. Apparently it can also interrupt the cycles of cluster headaches, although nobody yet understands why. Meanwhile, drilling holes in your head, no matter how much it hurts, is not recommended...
...distinctive black-and-white sweater-striped pill was supposed to make millions of Americans thin--and its manufacturer rich. But a year after the drug called Redux was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for sale in the U.S., the hot new diet pill has fallen short on both counts. At $200 million a year, sales are flat and lagging far behind the initial $1 billion-a-year expectations. Some who have taken Redux have discovered that it is not the magic melting potion they hoped it would be; others who were thinking of taking it have been frightened...
...April the Associated Press reported that a 38-year-old, 120-lb. woman had died after taking Redux for just a few days. It turned out that she weighed 220 lbs. and was in fact murdered--a turn of events that can hardly be blamed on the diet pill. The AP issued a correction, but the damage to the drug's image had been done...
Joseph is not sure why Redux has not panned out for more of his patients. It may be that they put too much faith in the pill to make them thin without their having to eat less or exercise more. But Joseph also suspects a biochemical explanation. Redux, like "fen/phen" before it, boosts the levels of serotonin, a neurochemical that, among other things, signals the brain that the body has had enough food. "If a lack of serotonin is the reason patients are overeating, then Redux should work beautifully," Joseph says. "But if they are overeating for some other reason...
...PILL-PUSHING PARENTS About one-third of parents pressure doctors to prescribe antibiotics for their kids even in cases when the pills won't do any good. About one-fifth go ahead and give the drugs to kids without consulting a physician...