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Its time to update your counseling on the injectable contraceptive depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA, Depo-Provera, Pfizer; New York City). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has added a black box warning to the drugs labeling to highlight that prolonged use may result in the loss of bone mineral density (BMD).
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The first male contraceptives to make it to the market likely will be hormonal-based birth control, similar to what has worked well for female contraceptives for the past four decades. However, there are serious difficulties with hormonal contraceptives for men, so the possibilities that are beginning to excite researchers working in the contraceptive field are the nonhormonal methods.
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A spray-on birth control method for women recently has entered a Phase I clinical trial in which six women in Sydney, Australia, are using the new product as part of a study to determine whether the transdermal contraceptive can be used in spray formulation effectively.
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African American women are far more likely to be infected with HIV than are white women and Hispanic women, a problem that has been growing, according to recent reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Use of risedronate in women 80 years and older reduced the incidence of vertebral fractures and was well tolerated.
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Maintaining INRs (International normalized ratios) between 2 and 3 is safer than INRs below 2, as suggested by some guidelines.
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Most neoplastic lesions are not detected either by Hemoccult screening or by multitarget analysis of fecal DNA. Nevertheless, the fecal DNA analysis was significantly more efficient than Hemoccult testing.
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Pharmacotherapy of hypertension has been much in the news in the last 2 months. Standard therapies such as atenolol have been challenged, while calcium channel antagonists may be making a comeback.
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Atenolol is unsuitable as a first-line drug in hypertension.
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A new agent has received expedited FDA approval for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis.
