Science Today

Date : July 29, 2019 Source : JAMA Pediatrics Summary : For respiratory infections in children under 12, physicians are increasingly more likely to recommend antihistamines and less likely to recommend cough and cold medicines, a new study found. Antihistamines are widely used over-the-counter to treat various allergic conditions. However, these medicines have little known benefit for children with colds, and some older antihistamines cause sedation and occasionally agitation in children. Antihistamines are widely used over-the-counter to treat various allergic conditions. However, these medicines have little known benefit for children with colds, and some older antihistamines cause sedation and occasionally agitation in children. The study, in  JAMA Pediatrics , found a sharp decline in cough and cold medicine recommendations for children under 2 after 2008, when the Food and Drug Administration recommended against the medicines for that age group due to safety concerns and un...

--------------Drug Safety Evaluation by Shayne Cox Gad-----------

Toxic- Detective = Sherlock Holmes How Sherlock Holmes knew so much about poisons? Before there was Sherlock Holmes and his trademark deer stalker cap, there was an English physician, Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle. And before that there was just plain old Arthur Conan Doyle, a student at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, and where we will begin. On September 20th, 1879 the British Medical Journal published a letter entitled “Gelseminum as a Poison” in which Doyle recounts his use of a tincture of gelseminum. Obviously prone to experimentation, the 19-year-old Doyle was “determined to ascertain how far one might go in taking the drug, and what the primary symptoms of an overdose might be.” Allrighty then.  Doyle prepared a fresh tincture and recorded his observations like any good scientist should. Pharmaceutical research is not unlike being a detective, you are constantly searching for clues and formulating explanations for whatever results might be generated. Sh...

Mohd Riyaz Beg | M. Pharm, ICT, Mumbai | B. Pharm, SPER, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi | Race With Dreams! ©   What is Encephalitis? Encephalitis referred as injury directly to Brain tissue by a bacterial or viral infection. Symptoms involved are fever and headache, altered consciousness, focal neurologic signs, or seizures. [a] Encephalitis may be the result of bacterial, viral, fungal and protozoal infections. Bacterial Encephalitis: Bacterial infection of the brain substance is usually secondary to involvement of the meninges rather than a primary bacterial parenchymal infection. This results in bacterial cerebritis that progresses to form brain abscess. However, tuberculosis and neurosyphilis are the two primary bacterial involvements of the brain parenchyma. [b] Fungal and Protozoal Encephalitis: Systemic mycoses in the body usually disseminate to CNS by blood stream. They are particularly more common in immunosuppressed individuals such as in AIDS, pat...