Marcia Angell, HMS senior lecturer on social medicine, authored this piece for The New York Times Room for Debate section about drug companies and control over whether drugs are considered safe and effective.
The rise of A.D.H.D. diagnoses and prescriptions for stimulants coincided with a remarkably successful two-decade campaign by pharmaceutical companies to publicize the syndrome and promote the pills to doctors, educators and parents. Research by Joseph Biederman, HMS professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, is cited. Aaron Kesselheim, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Tyrone Williams, HMS clinical instructor in psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, are quoted.
For more than a decade, concierge medicine has been an attractive alternative for primary care doctors, who tend to receive the lowest compensation of all physicians. Russell Phillips, professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and director of the HMS Center for Primary Care, is quoted.
Exercise might help women beat breast cancer. Researchers found it can ease the achy joints and muscle pain that lead many patients to quit taking medicines that treat the disease and lower the risk of a recurrence. Jennifer Ligibel, HMS assistant professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was one of the leaders of the study. Eric Winer, HMS professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is also quoted.
Could schizophrenia explain Thamsanqa Jantjie’s bizarre behavior? Jantjie was on stage for more than three hours, ostensibly interpreting speeches made by dignitaries, including President Obama, in sign language for the deaf community. Except that his sign language was incomprehensible to them. Ann Shinn, HMS instructor in psychiatry at McLean Hospital, is quoted.
A Boston-based advocacy group is calling on Fisher-Price to stop selling a baby bouncy seat with an attachment that can hold an iPad, calling it the “ultimate electronic babysitter” that undermines interaction with caregivers. Susan Linn, HMS instructor in psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital, is quoted.
During a visit to Russia, Jeffrey Gelfand, HMS clinical professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, found doctors using a powerful, potentially explosive laser designed for military applications to treat patients with advanced kidney cancer. Researchers at Mass. General’s Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center then began doing basic animal studies to verify and probe the science. Satoshi Kashiwagi, HMS instructor in medicine and Mark Poznansky, HMS associate professor of medicine, both of MGH, led a team that spent nearly a year trying out different lasers to determine a safe dosage in mice.
Monica O’Neal, HMS clinical instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, says the end of the year is a common time for feelings that could signal depression. O’Neal will be chatting live with Boston.com readers today to discuss an important and often neglected side of wellness: depression.
If you are mentally troubled, don’t count on professional medical help to nurse you back to health. It is getting increasingly hard to get treated, even if you have insurance. J. Wesley Boyd, HMS assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, is quoted.
