Word: pill
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...sleep. Destroy the raphe nuclei in cats, and they develop permanent and total insomnia. Give the wakeful cats a shot of serotonin, and they immediately go to sleep. In humans the amino acid L-tryptophan, which is converted to serotonin in the brain, is sometimes used as a sleeping pill. (A bad batch of L-tryptophan killed several people in the late 1980s and effectively killed the craze.) In another experiment, researchers discovered that when they stimulated raphe cells to release extra serotonin not in the brain but in the spinal cord, test subjects experienced pain relief...
...finger pointing that followed last week's abrupt withdrawal of two of the country's favorite diet pills looked like a multiple-choice law-school torts exam, the similarity was hardly coincidental. Even before the FDA urged the recall of Redux (dexfenfluramine)--and Pondimin (fenfluramine), the front half of the fat-pill combo known as fen/phen--scores of lawyers across the nation had already started filing lawsuits. After the recall, the legal assault turned into a stampede. "Everyone saw money," says Jacoby & Meyers' Gail Koff...
Some attorneys even took out newspaper ads desperately seeking any individuals who felt they had been hurt by the capsules. New York lawyer Paul Rheingold, author of four suits so far, describes the diet-pill debacle as such "easy" pickings that he expects "many thousands of lawsuits scattered all around the country." Eventually, say some analysts, the Redux-fenfluramine recall could grow into one of the biggest medical-liability cases in history, perhaps exceeding the anticipated $2.4 billion from silicone breast implants...
...sought sponsorship from U.S. health agencies and launched a number of scientific studies in which some mothers were given short treatments with AZT and some, for the purpose of comparison, received a placebo. It is the inclusion of these placebo groups that the critics find objectionable. Giving a sugar pill to an AIDS patient is considered ethically unacceptable in the U.S. To give one to a pregnant African, Dr. Angell writes, shows a "callous disregard of [a patient's] welfare for the sake of research goals...
...many doctors question Deeks' results, says TIME's Christine Gorman, noting that his survey is based on an incomplete analysis of the HIV levels in the subjects. Equally important, the study doesn't take into account whether all the patients were actually following the rigorous and demanding pill-popping regimen that the chemical cocktail demands. Up to 20 pills a day must be taken at specific times, and doses must be calibrated to the individual. Since each individual responds differently to the medication, it's difficult to determine whether the drugs are in fact losing their effectiveness ? or if people...