The first ever North American study into prescribing diamorphine to addicts was published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. And the outcomes are positive. This is the latest in a growing line of research studies into diamorphine prescribing. The Netherlands and Switzerland have both completed major studies that showed extremely positive outcomes in treatment resistant populations. Germany has recently begun a study along these lines, and a British study is about to report it's outcomes any minute now.

How often must a positive outcome be replicated before something becomes part of mainstream treatment provision?
posted by PeterMcDermott on Aug 20, 2009 - 56 comments

The Wire - David Simon's original pitch and series bible. "At the end of thirteen episodes, the viewer - who has been lured all this way by a well-constructed police show - is not the simple gratification of hearing handcuffs click. Instead the conclusion is something Euripides or O'Neill might recognize: an America at every level at war with itself." [Previously.] (via)
posted by Electric Dragon on Apr 17, 2009 - 42 comments

A Real Doll "doctor" gives an interview, describing the art of patching up the dolls and questioning their treatment by their owners.
posted by Grrlscout on Feb 22, 2009 - 158 comments

If you don't see any patterns in your data, yet day-to-day fluctuations persist, he is reacting to something you aren't tracking. Look elsewhere. A heartrending (and long) online log of one father's 10-year struggle to make sense of his child's ADHD and find a way to treat it without medication.
posted by Deathalicious on Feb 18, 2009 - 60 comments

Do you have a yearning to be online? Do you suffer from difficulty concentrating or sleeping, irritation, or mental or physical distress? According to doctors in China, you might have an internet addiction. [more inside]
posted by DiscourseMarker on Nov 10, 2008 - 25 comments

Bacteriophages ("phages" for short) were the only effective treatment against infectious diseases until antibiotics came along during WWII.

Phages are the most ubiquitous organism on Earth. They are naturally occurring viruses that infect bacteria and bacteria only. We live in a sea of phages. Our bodies are more phage than human. There approximately 10 to the 32 power of them around us. That's 10 with 32 zeros behind it.

Antibiotics cannot keep up with evolving infections, while phages naturally co-evolve with the bacteria.

Currently we are in a growing antibiotic crisis and phage therapy is getting a serious look again. Here's a fascinating discussion from National Public Radio.
posted by wsg on Apr 4, 2008 - 37 comments

FollowupFilter: The "Ashley Treatment" is a violation of Washington state law, ruled an investigative report today. The hospital that performed the sterilization acknowledged that a miscommunication was to blame.
posted by pineapple on May 8, 2007 - 141 comments

According to an article in The Guardian about this new scientific report on XDR-TB, a new kind of multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis, in PLOS Medicine, "More than 300 cases of the highly infectious disease, which is spread by airborne droplets and kills 98% of those infected within about two weeks, have been identified in South Africa."
posted by Quiplash on Jan 23, 2007 - 16 comments

A number of articles are being published regarding a Washington family's controversial decision to administer a series of medical procedures that will prevent their developmentally disabled daughter from growing. The family has now created a blog to discuss their side of the issue regarding an ongoing debate in bioethics circles.
posted by allen.spaulding on Jan 3, 2007 - 221 comments

The Trouble with Troubled Teen Programs
posted by daksya on Dec 28, 2006 - 85 comments

Meet the new jailers-- Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad is at the centre of fresh abuse allegations just a week after it was handed over to Iraqi authorities, with claims that inmates are being tortured by their new captors. Mass executions, torture again, etc. How bad is it when the inmates plead for us to come back? (Warning--this second link is graphic evidence of what we did there--NSFW)
posted by amberglow on Sep 10, 2006 - 27 comments

New form of mousepox developed. A scientist has created an extremely deadly form of mousepox (a relative of smallpox) through genetic engineering. The new virus kills mice even if they have been given antiviral drugs as well as a vaccine that would normally protect them.
posted by Irontom on Oct 30, 2003 - 42 comments

SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMONDS "Treating Mentally Ill Musicians Without Removing Their Muse."
posted by konolia on Jun 3, 2003 - 28 comments

What's "the primary cause of cervical cancer?" Did you know that "as many as 40 million Americans are infected?" Should you be alarmed that "There is no direct treatment?" Let's talk Papilloma.
posted by zekinskia on Aug 21, 2002 - 31 comments

New treatment for depression in women possibly best news ever for men.
posted by rushmc on Jun 26, 2002 - 45 comments

Overcome Depression: The New Computer -Cognitive Treatment Overcoming Depression is the world's first self-educative computer program for understanding, dealing with, and preventing depression using a unique dialogue mode that allows you to express yourself freely in your own words and that responds in meaningful every language characteristic of a therapeutic context. So much for the personal therapeutic process. My question is - can this program prescribe meds??!??
posted by gloege on May 20, 2002 - 18 comments

This man is so fascinatingly delusional. Why has he not been required to get some mental health treatment? The overall attitude in the United States toward depression, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses is absurd. Mentally ill people of all types, particularly poor ones, are stigmatized, receive poor or limited or no care. The 1970s discharge of thousands of mentally ill patients onto the streets and subsequent public policy on the treatment of mental illness, particularly in the poor and homeless has continued to impact our lives as well as those of the people in need of care.
posted by jfwlucy on Jun 15, 2001 - 15 comments