new england journal

Although two new trials failed to show a cancer link for Vytorin, the cholesterol-lowering drug isn't ready to be completely cleared, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine says.

(Northwestern Memorial Hospital) Results of a 10-year study published in the August 28 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine found that magnesium sulfate administered to women delivering before 32 weeks of gestation reduced the risk of cerebral palsy by 50 percent.

The Beneficial Effects of Antenatal Magnesium Sulfate trial was conducted in 18 centers in the US, including Northwestern Memorial, and is the first prenatal intervention ever found to reduce the instance of cerebral palsy related to premature birth.

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Events of the past year in HIV vaccine research have led some to question whether an effective HIV vaccine will ever be developed.

In the Aug. 28 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, officials from NIAID examine the extraordinarily challenging properties of the virus that have made a vaccine elusive and outline the scientific questions that, if answered, could lead to an effective HIV vaccine.

Two years ago, we posted about questions whether the "Surviving Sepsis" campaign was driven by marketing as well as science.

(University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine) The Aug. 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine explores the issue of organ donation after cardiac death.

In the journal's Perspective Roundtable, Arthur Caplan, PhD, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, weighs in on the ethical considerations of the changing assumptions about when death occurs, the importance of respecting "the dead donor rule" and how to decide which patients are suitable organ donors.

Last week's New England Journal of Medicine included a letter [Troy DE, Gottlieb S.

Pharmaceutical promotion and first amendment rights. N Engl J Med 2008; 359: 536. ] supporting pharmaceutical companies' rights to promote their products for uses not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The letter applauded "the robust, sound constitutional protection the U.S.

Side Effects by Alison Bass continues to generate controversy.

As described by a reviewer in the New England Journal of Medicine,(1) the book

used the case of Paxil to expose the unsavory and self-serving relationships among members of the pharmaceutical industry, psychiatrists, and members of the FDA.

The reviewer concluded,

BALTIMORE -- The Iraq war has ignited a feud within a small group known as war epidemiologists and the battleground is the New England Journal of Medicine.

Concerns about manipulation and suppression of the clinical research literature are gaining more traction. Recently, Alison Bass published Side Effects, a book that explored one of the more vivid cases.

As described by a reviewer in the New England Journal of Medicine,(1)

She has used the case of Paxil to expose the unsavory and self-serving relationships among members of the pharmaceutical industry, psychiatrists, and members of the FDA.

The reviewer concluded,

BOSTON -- The landmark Supreme Court decision that struck down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns "has launched the country on a risky epidemiologic experiment," according to the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine.