Archive for August, 2008

Two New Drug Warnings

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Early in April, a House committee launched an inquiry into the marketing practices - particularly direct-to-consumer promotions - of the makers of several drugs prescribed to treat anemia. Then, late in May, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned the use of varenicline (Chantix) by pilots and air traffic controllers. Here's ...

Smoking After Diagnosis Hurts Care, Research

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

Doctors Can No Longer Ignore Smoking Effects Cancer patients who smoke would benefit if their oncologists promoted tobacco cessation efforts and researchers collected data on tobacco use in cancer clinical trials, two journal articles say. Prompting the suggestions from M. D. Anderson researchers is new research showing the link between poor treatment ...

Clonidine (Catapres) for quitting smoking

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

Examples Brand Name Chemical Name Catapres clonidine Clonidine is available by prescription in pill or patch form. Clonidine has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in helping people to quit smoking. However, the Tobacco Use and Dependence Clinical Practice Guideline Panel of the U.S. ...

Nortriptyline for quitting smoking

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

Examples Brand Name Chemical Name Aventyl, Pamelor nortriptyline Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved nortriptyline for use in smoking cessation, the Tobacco Use and Dependence Clinical Practice Guideline Panel of the U.S. Public Health Service recommends it as a second-choice medicine for this use. The preferred medicines to help you quit ...

Tips to Help You Stop Smoking

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Cigarette smoking, and even smoking cigars or a pipe, is one of the greatest risk factors for a heart attack as well as for stroke, lung cancer, and emphysema. To stop smoking: Set a quit date. Smoking cessation is most successful when it's done "cold turkey," not slowly by reducing the number ...

Saved From Smoke

Friday, August 1st, 2008

Mothers who smoke while pregnant may be knocking as many as four points off their baby's IQ. But intensive prenatal care may offset the loss. The deficits turned up in a Cornell University study of three-and four-year-old children of 400 mothers who smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day when pregnant. ...