A cheerfully depressing investigation: “Which Placebo to Cure Depression?”

This study pokes a pointed stick into lots of questions about medicine, science, and scholarship. The lead author writes (in a note to us) that “It addresses a paradox in modern medicine: antidepressants are often considered to be mere placebos [1] despite the fact that meta-analyses are able to rank them [2]: it follows that it […]

New-fangled Orodispersible Tablets

News about new-fangled orodispersible tablets: “Orodispersible Tablets: New-fangled Drug Delivery System – A Review,” S. A. Sreenivas, P. M. Dandagi, A. P. Gadad, A. M. Godbole, S. P. Hiremath, V.S.Mastiholimath and S. T. Bhagawati, Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, 39(4) Oct – Dec. 2005, pp. 177 f. The authors, at K. L. E. S’s […]

Meth is Nothing to Sneeze At: A Possible Anti-Influenza Agent

Drugs almost always have more than one effect on the body. Witness this new study: “Methamphetamine Reduces Human Influenza A Virus Replication,” Yun-Hsiang Chen, Kuang-Lun Wu, Chia-Hsiang Chen [pictured here], PLoS ONE 7(11): e48335. (Thanks to investigator Ron Josephson for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the National Health Research Institutes in Zhunan, […]

Improbable Research