The Today programme have said that there is ” fresh evidence that people who are admitted to hospitals in England at weekends face a significantly increased risk of death.” 4 days ago, the Telegraph reported that Andrew Lansley had decided to fund hospitals to work 24/7 with no weekend change to staffing, and the report cites […]
Continue Reading →Inside Health Radio 4 – references/useful links
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1675692 History of benzodiazepine dependence http://www.benzo.org.uk/amisc/lader.pdf Tramadol dependence http://www.jfponline.com/Pages.asp?AID=1849 Bendodiazapine addiction and effevicness http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfoforall/treatments/benzodiazepines.aspx NICE and anxiety and benzodiazepines http://www.nice.org.uk/usingguidance/optimalpracticereviewrecommendationreminders/optimal_practice_review_recommendation_reminders_detail.jsp?o=92 NICE and insomnia http://www.nice.org.uk/niceMedia/pdf/21pressreleaseinsomnia.pdf All party group on involuntary tranquiliser addiction http://www.appgita.com/index.php/objectives/ Appropriate prescribing http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11767867 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11044870 Off label prescribing by experts http://pb.rcpsych.org/content/35/3/84.abstract Benzodiazepine […]
Continue Reading →BMJ – Pensions – all the rage
Free link here
Continue Reading →References for R4
Radio 4, the evidence for cough mixtures and placebo effects. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019rqcq#synopsis UKspends 532 million annually on winter cold remedies http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=479764 Cochrane review of OTC cough medicines http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18253996 Deaths in children using OTC cough remedies http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17218934 MHRA safety advice 2010 http://www.mhra.gov.uk/Safetyinformation/Safetywarningsalertsandrecalls/Safetywarningsandmessagesformedicines/CON038908 MHRA advice to use honey in children with cough http://www.mhra.gov.uk/home/groups/comms-po/documents/websiteresources/con038905.pdf Journal of the Royal Society […]
Continue Reading →How much of a social media can doctors have?
Free link to BMJ article here
Continue Reading →It ain’t over till it’s over
I’m feeling rather inspired by Clive Peedall and his plea that the Royal Colleges should come together in opposition of the Health Bill. There is good reason to think that the Colleges are now in discussion as to what to do. There is also good reason to think that this can be influenced. The BMA, the […]
Continue Reading →Show us the evidence for telehealth
Free link to BMJ article here
Continue Reading →Inside Health and Do Not Resuscitate
Radio 4 Inside Health today – these are the references I used for the column.CPR on television – miracles and misinformation NEJM 1996 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199606133342406 Survival in cancer patients undergoing in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A meta-analysis, Resuscitation, 2006 <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300957206001328#foot1> The Influence of the Probability of Survival on Patients’ Preferences Regarding Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation – New England Journal of […]
Continue Reading →The Alliance for Natural Health – my response
The Which? investigation into nutritional therapists is ably reported here, on DC’s webpage. The Alliance for Natural Therapies responds by saying that ” Although Dr McCartney’s presence on the panel was presumably to advise on the medical diagnoses involved in the investigation, medical doctors in the UK receive minimal training in nutrition as part of their medical […]
Continue Reading →Inside health – Bayes theorem and itching
Column on Inside Health, Radio 4’s new health programme, hosted by Mark Porter. This mentions Thomas Bayes. It’s near the end. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019c8kt
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