Pharmaceuticals

It's time to let scientists study whether LSD, marijuana and ecstasy can ease psychiatric disorders

A meta-analysis of 47 previously published studies concludes that there's moderate evidence for meditation offering some relief of anxiety and depression, and low or insufficient evidence for effects on other conditions. Christie Nicholson reports

 

Newly discovered mutations are helping tuberculosis to stay infectious while evolving resistance to multiple drugs

Rakesh K. Jain, director of the Edwin L. Steele Laboratory for Tumor Biology in the radiation oncology department of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, talks about his article in the February issue of Scientific American about interfering with extracellular matrix as a way to increase the efficacy of cancer therapy 

 

Medicines that cut fever and pain help viruses replicate and send infectious people out into the world, at a possible cost of an additional thousand U.S. flu deaths a year

 

Migraine patients who were told they were getting a real drug did better than those who got the same treatment but who were told they were getting a placebo

 

The caffeine equivalent to that in two cups of coffee can boost performance on a memory test. Sophie Bushwick reports.

The Federal Trade Commission says GeneLink, which served 30,000 customers, made claims not based on science and failed to protect consumer information

A flow restrictor on liquid medicine bottles could prevent accidental ingestions, but drugmakers have yet to promise or deliver such protection on many pediatric medicines

Most T cells are not killed by the HIV virus itself, but by the body’s defense mechanism. Stopping this process could prevent a patient’s progression to AIDS

A population model suggests that a small dietary change, such as eating a daily piece of fruit instead of the equivalent calories in less healthful fare, may stave off as many heart-related deaths as would statins. Christopher Intagliata reports

GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Advair for asthma, Lovaza for high triglyceride levels and the diabetes drug Avandia, is under pressure facing all drug companies for greater transparency in payments to doctors, a provision of Obamacare