Intrauterine devices, or IUDs, are finally being recognized by significant numbers of American women as an effective and convenient contraceptive, reports Jane Brody in her column this week for The New York Times. The most recent data show that use of IUDs among U.S.

A recent review published in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that, compared to standard drug therapy, inserting a stent to repair a narrowed artery has no benefit in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). Stable CAD, or stable angina, refers to chest pain or discomfort that occurs following exercise or stress.

For women suffering from the unpleasant side effects of menopause, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was once a much sought-after remedy. That is, until 2002, when a large study called the Women s Health Initiative (WHI) was halted abruptly after researchers seemed to have discovered a link between combined estrogen-progestin therapy (EPT) and an increased risk of breast cancer and adverse cardiovascular events.

Statin medications will now display an additional label, one that warns users that these cholesterol-lowering drugs may raise blood sugar levels and cause memory loss. The FDA announced the latest change while still affirming that statins significantly reduce the risk of heart attack and heart disease; the new information, the agency says, should not scare people away from the drugs.

Use of hypnotic sleep-aids was associated with a higher mortality risk than that seen in non-users, according to the results of the latest case-controlled study published in BMJ Open. Patients prescribed as few as 0.4 to 18 doses of these sleep aids per year were found to have a mortality risk three to five times higher than people who used none at all. Given that 6 to 10 percent of Americans take these medications, the results of the study have been setting off alarms.

The past 20 years have seen a flurry of new smoking cessation interventions from media campaigns to high taxes to nicotine patches and other pharmaceutical interventions. One would hope that with so many technological and policy advances, smoking cessation rates would be steadily increasing. Not so, suggests a recent study in the journal Tobacco Control. In fact, over the past two decades, there has been no increasing trend in smoking cessation rates in the American population, despite so many new efforts.

On the topic of unnecessary screenings, a recent personal vignette in the Archives of Internal Medicine explores the issue of overuse of PSA testing for prostate cancer from a deeply personal perspective. Dr. Charles Bennett, an oncologist who specializes in prostate cancer, tells the story of his own experience with PSA testing, as well as his regrets about this screening and the consequences that followed.

The practice of screening healthy people for conditions before they have symptoms has gone out of control, according to Dr. H. Gilbert Welch. In an op-ed in today s New York Times, Dr.

In a new post for Medical Progress Today, ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom describes an unfortunate double blow that Congress has been aiming at doctors: threatening to reduce Medicare reimbursements by 27 percent and attacking interactions between pharmaceutical companies and physicians as necessarily corrupt. Fortunately, Congress relented on the Medicare reimbursement issue and voted to delay the decrease for the rest of 2012. But next year an even greater cut is in the works, unless a permanent solution is found. And as Dr.

While researchers increasingly focus their efforts on the genetic underpinnings of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there s no denying that its causes most likely involve a variety of factors. To that end, a team led by a Northwestern University researcher studied the relationship between ASD and low birth-weight and they found a positive correlation. Dr.