What’s happening in the consulting room – it’s not just about you, but the silent politician on my shoulder. Column on political incentives to GPs.

  This is in reply to David Colquhoun after a twitter discussion.  @david_colquhounhas signed a petition calling for ECT to be banned. I think this is a very bad idea. First off: ECT has been overused and badly used in the past. I don’t think it should be used where a patient doesn’t consent to […]

V pleased to be talking at Glasgow Skeptics in the pub on Monday 5th March. Currently scanning in the most irritating adverts for screening tests you just don’t need. Joy!

Two new things first, an article on the Welfare Reform Bill and Atos in the BMJ – should we really entrust Atos to reassess all people currently recieving Disability Living Allowance? I don’t think so, and here’s why. And a column for Inside Health about medical records and why they come with many perils. The […]

Common Wheel, in Maryhill. Article in the Guardian here.

Inside Health – on bad-for-you high street test kits for gluten intolerance and BMJ article – do you need your telomeres tested – nah.  

  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 […]

Free link here

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 […]

Free link to BMJ article here