Premenstrual syndrome
Despite its popularity in the UK and US, treatment of premenstrual syndrome with progestogens, the hormones released during pregnancy, is unlikely to be effective, according to researchers at Keele University, in England. Reviewing 14 trials of progestogen or progesterone therapy (progesterone is a type of progestogen), involving more than 900 women with premenstrual syndrome, they conclude that there is no convincing evidence to support the continued prescription of the hormones for the condition.
Ambulances delayed
Communication problems affect more than a quarter of emergency ambulance calls, delaying ambulance dispatch or preventing delivery of first-aid advice, according to a study of 999 calls in England. Callers' emotional state was the most common cause of problems; calls from mobile phones and payphones also generated more problems than those from landlines. The researchers say that persuading the public to use landlines for emergency calls and teaching them about the information they need when calling 999, as well as better training of emergency-service personnel, may reduce the extent of communication problems.
Do farms help asthma?
Early and sustained exposure to a farming environment could protect against asthma and other allergic diseases, suggest the authors of a study of rural areas of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Children who were exposed in their first year to farm stables and consumed farm milk were less likely to develop asthma than those exposed between the ages of one and five (1 per cent compared with 11 per cent). Similar risk reductions were found for hay fever (3 per cent compared with 13 per cent). Long-term exposure to stables until the age of five was associated with the lowest frequencies of asthma (0.8 per cent), hay fever (0.8 per cent) and atopic eczema (8.2 per cent). The information "may help our understanding of the origins of asthma and other allergic diseases, and have the potential to inform future allergy-prevention strategies".
Drug advertisements
Prescription-drug advertising is big business in the United States - pharmaceutical companies spent $1.8 billion on direct-to-consumer campaigns in 1999 - but it provides incomplete information, according to a recent study. Of the 67 advertisements reviewed, most of which were placed in magazines aimed at women, 67 per cent used emotional appeals and 39 per cent encouraged consumers to consider medical causes for their experiences. None mentioned cost. Supporters say the advertising provides information about treatment options; opponents say it might inappropriately increase demand for often costly products. "Our findings indicate that these advertisements rarely quantify a medication's expected benefit," say the authors. "This strategy probably leaves many readers with the perception that the drug's benefit is large and that everyone who uses the drug will enjoy the benefit. The provision of complete information about benefit would serve the interests of physicians and the public."
Raynaud's society
Raynauld's disease, a condition that interrupts the blood supply, particularly to the hands and feet, affects about 350,000 Irish people. For more details contact the Irish Raynaluds and Scleroderma Society at PO Box 2958, Foxrock, Dublin 18 (01-2350900), or see the society's website, www.mdimedia.com/irss
'Irish Times lecture
The inaugural lecture in an Irish Times/the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland lecture series will take place tomorrow week, ( Ocotber 23rd) at 8 pm in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin. The lecture will deal with the health inequalities of cardiac disease in women.
Compiled by Muiris Houston and Sylvia Thompson
lifelines@irish-times.ie