News

An adult brain contains about 86 billion neurons and even more supercomputing power to closely monitor the entire human brain. All those neurons have trillions of synapses — or connection points — that make up the circuitry the brain uses to control everything we do from reasoning to breathing to walking. And scientists with the

After looking closely at the drug-drug interactions listed for Pfizer’s new oral COVID-19 drug ritonavir-nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid), I realized that a large percentage of my patients are taking medications on the list. The antiviral was granted FDA emergency use authorization in late December for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in patients at high risk of severe

Before omicron, people in the UK with COVID symptoms or a positive test had to self-isolate for ten days. But when the new variant of concern arrived, the government changed the self-isolation period to seven days. On the other side of the Atlantic, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that given what

More data support the concept of stroke-related restless legs syndrome as an “emerging entity,” investigators report in a new study. New research has identified the lenticulostriate and ventral brainstem as the main regions implicated in stroke-related restless leg syndrome (s-RLS). Researchers also observed dopaminergic dysfunction in patients with sRLS. “Clinicians should be aware of sRLS

The latest: Parents and teachers in four provinces are bracing for students to return to the classroom on Monday as the Omicron-fuelled wave of COVID-19 continues to spread and questions remain about how prepared schools really are for a full-scale return. Students in Ontario and Quebec, Canada’s largest provinces, will resume in-person learning after their

When it comes to antidepressant prescribing, less may be more, new research suggests. A new review suggests antidepressants are overprescribed and that the efficacy of these agents is questionable, leading researchers to recommend that when physicians prescribe these medications, it should be for shorter periods. “Antidepressants have never been shown to have a clinically significant

“We’ve made too many mistakes by sitting on our butts.” — Eric Feigl-Ding, ScD, of the Federation of American Scientists, on the hesitancy to shift toward using both nasal and throat swabs for Omicron testing. “They’re like, ‘I’m out. I’m done. Yes, you can pay me $75 an hour. I still don’t want it.'” —

The ketogenic diet is a revolutionary low-carb and high-fat eating program that puts your body into ketosis–the state where you burn fat for energy. There are plenty of benefits of undergoing this diet: quick weight loss, better heart health, balanced hormones, lower blood sugar levels, more energy, and a clear and sharp mind. In a

Fed up with personal attacks on the nation’s top infectious disease expert, scores of leading scientists and physicians have signed an open letter defending Anthony Fauci, MD, for his years of service to the public and his leadership on the pandemic. “We deplore the personal attacks on Dr. Fauci. The criticism is inaccurate, unscientific, ill-founded

After landing in the hospital on Christmas Day, Randy Samms has spent hours considering how close he came to dying from COVID-19. Now he looks forward to an occasion he has long avoided: The day he’ll get vaccinated. “I was afraid of the vaccine,” said Samms, sitting in a chair beside his hospital bed in the COVID-19

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Commercial and Medicare Advantage insurers are spending an estimated $129.7 million annually on ivermectin prescriptions for COVID-19, even though the antiparasitic drug has not been shown to be effective against the virus, according to a new JAMA study. The researchers analyzed

The 24-hour news cycle is just as important to medicine as it is to politics, finance, or sports. At MedPage Today, new information is posted daily, but keeping up can be a challenge. As an aid for our readers, here is a 10-question quiz based on the news of the week. Topics include death during

A new year is almost upon us and with it come the New Year’s resolutions that we truly hope to keep. If losing weight, getting stronger, or being healthier is part of your 2022 resolutions; The Bitbag team has found 4 workout subscription apps that will help you stay on track for a healthier year

The Isotretinoin Products Manufacturers Group (IPMG) reports that most users of the iPLEDGE Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) should now have access to their accounts, one month after a modified program was launched, the Food and Drug Administration announced on Jan. 14. The IPMG has “created a new tool within the system to help resolve account access

Subscribe to Second Opinion for a weekly roundup of health and medical science news. A Canadian study that vastly underestimated the protection COVID-19 vaccines provide against the Omicron variant is being revised — but not before it spread widely on social media by anti-vaxxers, academics and even the creators of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. The Ontario

The Food and Drug Administration on Jan. 14 approved two oral JAK-1 inhibitors for patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD) — upadacitinib and abrocitinib — making them the first oral JAK inhibitors available for this indication in the United States. “It’s big news because a few years ago we didn’t have any systemic treatments that are safer

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) voted unanimously to support a recommendation of no change to the physician fee schedule for fiscal year 2023 on Thursday, provoking immediate backlash from the American Medical Association (AMA) and other medical groups. A combination of inflation plus lost revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic sparked concern. Under current law,

Two years into the pandemic, most of us are fed up. COVID case rates are higher than they’ve ever been and hospitalization rates are once again rising rapidly in many countries. Against this bleak picture, we yearn to get back to normal. We’d like to meet friends in a pub or have them over for

Substance use disorders (SUDs), particularly alcohol abuse, are linked to excess mortality in patients with eating disorders, new research shows. The findings, led by Angelina Mellentin, PhD, with the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, showed comorbid SUDs were tied to up to an 11-fold increased risk of death across all eating disorder types. “Control subjects

This First Person article is the experience of Laura Sang, a resident physician at a hospital in Montreal. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ. As I rummage through the boxes of N95 masks, I finally find the one in my size. It’s the last one. I gingerly remove it

Reaction to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed decision to restrict coverage of the controversial and expensive Alzheimer’s disease (AD) drug aducanumab (Aduhelm) has been swift and polarized. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the drug on June 7 set off a firestorm of controversy, including a federal investigation

Flu vaccines prevented the majority of critical and life-threatening influenza cases among children during the 2019-2020 season, a case-control study found. Vaccine effectiveness was 63% (95% CI 38-78%) against “critical influenza” and 75% (95% CI 49-88%) against “life-threatening influenza,” reported Manish Patel, MD, of the CDC, and colleagues in Clinical Infectious Diseases. CDC Director Rochelle