@bradstevens reading your post again it’s nutty how those cases get shopped around. Lawyers fighting. First won I was ever involved in was viaticals. Was awful. I didn’t want to do that stuff anymore. I don’t know how you swim in that pool
The amount of children given medications at a young age is out of control
What they take is probably safer. I sure remember having my cuts doused liberally with Mercurochrome, which probably explains much about me. We had exposure to lead pipes, lead paint, ethyl gas. The best treatment for a concussion was to get back in and play. Codeine was OTC. Things are far better.
@arthur-dent not sure I agree with this. @spartans9312 i think drs are too quick to prescribe. We’ve seen it from adderall gen to opioids
I blame parents and a Very small subset of elementary teachers….but mainly parents. And yes…prescribers play a big role but the kids have to get there first.
The amount of children given medications at a young age is out of control
What they take is probably safer. I sure remember having my cuts doused liberally with Mercurochrome, which probably explains much about me. We had exposure to lead pipes, lead paint, ethyl gas. The best treatment for a concussion was to get back in and play. Codeine was OTC. Things are far better.
I’m not sure I’m following here. Yes…those things were a problem but it has no bearing on medicine today. FTR…codeine is still available OTC if you can find a pharmacy that still keeps a log book (as far as I know)…we haven’t had one in close to 15 years
Saudi Arabia has an autism rate of 1 in 40, US is 1 in 31. Acetaminophen is banned in Saudi Arabia. The rest of the world calls it paracetamol:
Also, over-the-counter analgesic paracetamol formulations have been banned in countries such as Syria, Saudi, Bangladesh, Iran, and Kuwait because of analgesic abuse nephropathy
@spartans9312 I think medicine today is better tested. I seriously doubt anything like Mercury would make it through today. Except maybe as a supplement where there are virtually no rules.
Adderall is over prescribed, I think parents looking for an academic edge is part of that problem. That said, it was researched and is still being researched. I would suspect any popular medication has researchers all over the world reviewing data looking for unknown issues. Computers allow for that today at an unprecedented rate. That is also very true with vaccines. And the ability to find drug interactions is better than ever.
Oh yeah, we had mercury in our vaccines back then. We are far from perfect, but I believe we have made improvements in medicinal safety.
Aspirin would be rx only in today’s world…if approved at all.
It’s all over prescribed but especially in children/adolescents. Stimulants, SSRI’s, anti-psychotics, alpha agonists…on and on. When a two parent home and a JOB for the older kids would work better in 95% of the cases
Most researchers who have looked at the question of whether Tylenol taken during pregnancy is tied to autism do not claim the evidence shows that there is a relationship between the two, and some prominent researchers now think the common painkiller is unlikely to play a role.
But there is substantial disagreement. A review of 46 studies published in the journal Environmental Health last month and co-authored by researchers at Harvard University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai concluded that although the data are mixed, it is worth warning pregnant people about the potential risk of taking Tylenol.
“Appropriate and immediate steps should be taken to advise pregnant women to limit acetaminophen consumption to protect their offspring’s neurodevelopment,” the paper concluded, though multiple autism researchers suggested that the paper’s methodology undercut its ability to make that claim.
One of the authors of that paper, Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was an expert witness for a plaintiff in a case involving potential links between the use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders.
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The relationship is relatively small — one study says 5% increase in risk, though a meta-analysis of other studies put the increase in risk at 20% — and would not explain a substantial increase in autism cases in recent years. (Many, though not all, researchers argue that increase is the result of widened criteria for autism spectrum disorder.) But what researchers debate is whether Tylenol might cause autism, or whether Tylenol is simply more often used by people who experience certain conditions during pregnancy, such as infections or migraines, which might also be linked to autism.
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The case of leucovorin is simpler to explain: There are several studies that indicate the medicine can improve the performance of people with autism on standardized tests used to measure verbal ability. But these studies are quite small.
One study, published in the European Journal of Pediatrics, followed 80 patients between the ages of 2 and 10 who were randomly assigned to receive either leucovorin or a placebo. Neither their families nor their doctors knew who received the treatment. At the end of 24 weeks, the children who received leucovorin scored 1.2 points higher on a 60-point scale used to measure autism severity than the children who did not.
The result was statistically significant, but smaller studies are prone to false positive results. The normal course for researchers before making a recommendation would be to conduct a much larger randomized controlled trial to verify that the treatment is beneficial. Most such trials include hundreds or thousands of patients, and provide the best evidence of efficacy and safety.
It means they don't want pregnant women taking without talking to their doctors. Pretty much any drug maker is going to say that to keep Mc and Brad from suing them. Some people have chronic pain and could be taking Tylenol multiple times a day, every day. No way Tylenol or any other medicine wants that.
The study that was used to justify the press conference's co-author has the real point, take the minimum dose needed and only as long as needed. Frankly, all medicine for all people should be that way. Even water has an amount that will kill you if you drink too much (not drowning, actually drinking).
