› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
Women who use heartburn medication during pregnancy should not be overly concerned about the drugs causing birth defects, but using the drugs before they become pregnant may cause problems for the unborn child, according to a new study from Denmark published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Doctors said Gentrie Hansen’s uncontrollable bouts of nausea and vomiting were caused by bulimia, the eating disorder in which victims force themselves to throw up food they eat to keep from gaining weight. But 14-year-old Gentrie knew better. “The worst part of my whole sickness was people telling you ‘you have an eating disorder’ and you know something else is wrong and you really want your food,” she told the Today show.
A new medication may soon be available for patients who suffer from advanced gastroparesis, or delayed emptying of the stomach contents. Tranzyme Pharma is presenting data on its experimental drug ulimorelin later this month at the 2010 Joint International Meeting in Neurogastroenterology and Motility in Boston, Mass.
Diabetics who suffer from nausea, vomiting, bloating, or abdominal discomfort after eating may be eligible to participate in a study for an investigational medication to reduce the symptoms associated with delayed stomach emptying, also known as gastroparesis, a condition many diabetics experience.
An estimated 250,000 to 400,000 people in the United States have Tardive Dyskinesia, a disfiguring and debilitating involuntary movement disorder involving symptoms such as lip smacking, tongue thrusting and protruding, eye blinking and bulging, head jerking, facial grimacing, and puckering and pulsing of the lips. The muscle spasms can become painful and embarrassing and often are permanent. But what is most disturbing is that in many cases, the condition could have been prevented.
You can’t turn on the TV these days without hearing that the heartburn medication Reglan, also known by the generic name metoclopramide, has been linked to the serious involuntary movement disorder, Tardive Dyskinesia. But the drug also carries another serious warning – it can cause depression and suicidal thoughts.
