Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Researchers from the North Alabama Research Center based in Athens, Ala., are looking for people to participate in clinical trials for a potential new medication to treat gastrointestinal disease, also known as GERD. Persons age 18 to 70 who are still suffering from symptoms of GERD despite treatment with prescription medications are welcome to participate in the clinical trial. Participants must live within 50 miles of the clinic. Those interested can sign up at the Clinical Connection Web site here.

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If 27-year-old Mary Carter had her wish, she would be a food critic. But instead of enjoying lavish meals in fine restaurants, she gets her nutrition through a feeding tube. Mary remembers when her life changed so dramatically. It was August 1, 2006, and she was driving in her car. She began to feel nauseous, her heart raced, and her vision became blurry. From that moment on, everything she put in her mouth she would vomit up.

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Sufferers of gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as GERD, often experience symptoms such as heartburn and a sour taste in the mouth. But nearly half of all people with GERD have no symptoms except a chronic cough.

Most people dismiss the idea that they even have the acid reflux condition because they have none of the classic symptoms, but many sufferers of chronic cough may find relief when treating themselves for GERD.

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Last December, Sen. John McCain identified Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) as an illness unworthy of receiving funds for research, citing an earmarked $665,000 for the Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, for equipment and supplies to research the debilitating condition. This triggered the Gastroparesis Patient Association for Cures and Treatment (G-PACT), an organization that raises awareness of gastric mobility disorders, to write a petition to present to Sen. McCain on March 8, 2010. The petition stresses that the money is used to assist in the “funding innovating GI motility research by Cedars Sinai to study the use of various antibiotics to enhance GI mobility and prevent severe bacterial overgrowth in various GI motility disease,” usage deemed worthy by many who suffer from GI disorders.

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In the February 1996 issue of the drug newsletter Worst Pills, Best Pills News, a story was published by the Health Research Group of Public Citizen warning that a drug commonly prescribed for heartburn and slow emptying of the stomach contents, a condition known as gastroparesis, could cause a serious movement disorder known as Tardive Dyskinesia. The condition could cause permanent disability in users, according to the report.

However, it took more than a decade for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to place a black box warning on the medication, Reglan. A black box warning is the strongest warning issued by the FDA and is placed on drugs that have potentially harmful or deadly side effects. Meanwhile, the drug was dispensed 6.5 million times in 2008 to an estimated 2 million Americans.

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Metoclopramide, known by the brand name Reglan, is one of the leading medications prescribed to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and gastroparesis, a condition in which the stomach takes too long to empty its contents. What many don’t know is that metoclopramide was first used to treat psychosis in patients, but it was found to show more promise as a drug to treat gastrointestinal disorders. Unfortunately, like many medications used to treat psychosis, metoclopramide also increased one’s risk of developing a severe movement disorder known as Tardive Dyskinesia.

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A team of researchers renowned for their work in colon cancer believe they may have found a better treatment for Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal cancer based on findings from their colon cancer research, according to Science Daily.

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The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has found in favor with a lower court that patients may sue generic drug makers under state law for failing to provide adequate warnings about potential side effects with their drugs. The ruling extends a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling governing makers of name-brand drugs. The issue of whether generic drug companies should be held liable for not adequately warning consumers has divided several district courts, which can increase the odds of a Supreme Court review in the future, according to U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham.

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An estimated 250,000 to 400,000 people in the United States suffer from Tardive Dyskinesia, a serious and disabling involuntary movement disorder. The condition was first linked to use of anti-psychotic medications but most recently has been linked to a common heartburn, GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) and gastroparesis medication known as Reglan (metoclopramide). How the medications cause Tardive Dyskinesia is debatable, but studies show that long-term use of medications leave users at higher risk of developing the condition.

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More and more doctors are diagnosing fussy infants with gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, leaving some critics worrying that doctors are over-diagnosing the condition to soothe exasperated mothers.

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