For most of us, the “placebo effect” is synonymous with the power of positive thinking; it works because you believe you are taking a real drug. But a new study rattles this assumption. Researchers at Harvard Medical School’s Osher Research Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have found that placebos work even when administered without the seemingly requisite deception. The study is publ ...

An expert panel sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has issued comprehensive U.S. guidelines to assist health care professionals in diagnosing food allergy and managing the care of people with the disease. Check the end of this report for links to download the complete and summary guidelines for healthcare professionals. ...

Adolescents and young adults are most likely to abuse prescription medications. Yet prescription rates for controlled medications, or drugs the Drug Enforcement Administration deems as having the potential for abuse, have nearly doubled for those age groups in the past 14 years, according to a recent study published in Pediatrics. Overall, a controlled medication was prescribed for young adults at approxima ...

The American College of Physicians (ACP) today is sending a video to Congressional leaders and others that features internists – speaking in their own words – issuing a heartfelt plea for Congress to avert the scheduled Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) cut and work toward putting an end to the repeated cycle of cuts. The 3-minute and 25-second video emphasizes how patients, in particular, will be hurt ...

Have you ever felt uneasy sitting in a doctor's waiting room or climbed the walls waiting for your test results? That feeling of anxious uncertainty can be more stressful than knowing you have a serious illness, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). ...

Most patients who take anti-depressants give up their treatment in less than six months, the minimum period recommended for treating severe depression and other derived pathologies. This is the conclusion of a new study carried out by Catalan researchers, which reveals that only 25% continue their treatment for more than 11 months. ...

Personalized medicine is a field that holds a lot of promise as a provider of practices and technology that could help develop more effective treatments for serious diseases such as cancer. Personalized medicine involves tailoring treatment according to the genetic profile and molecular makeup of each patient. ...

Failure to have a prescription filled can undermine medical treatment, result in increased health care costs and potentially have devastating results for the patient. An editorial in the Nov. 16 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine highlights the problem and issues a call to action. ...

As you know, in July the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its proposed rule on the 2011 Medicare fee schedule, which reflected an expected cut to all services as a result of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and changes to the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) payments, as well as revisions to the medical economic index (MEI) that would significantly negatively i ...

Medical schools and clinics could boost the number of primary care physicians in medically underserved areas by selecting and encouraging students from these communities, who often exhibit a strong sense of responsibility for and identification with the people there, according to a new study by UCLA researchers and colleagues published in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health. ...