(NaturalNews) A Missouri hospital has admitted that it subjected 76 patients to 50 percent overdoses of brain radiation because a medical device had been programmed improperly.
According to the administration of CoxHealth in Springfield, a stereotactic radiation therapy device was programmed improperly after the hospital first installed it in 2004, even with an employee of the manufacturer supervising. For the next five years, every patient using the machine was exposed to 50 percent overdose. The error was only discovered in September 2009, when a new technician was being trained. A similar case occurred at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., in 2004 and 2005.
The hospital has suspended its stereotactic imaging program indefinitely for a full program audit.
The news comes on the heels of a scandal in which hundreds of patients in California and Alabama received as much as eight times the intended dose of chest radiation, and a new FDA initiative to reduce excess radiation from CT scans, nuclear medicine studies and fluoroscopies.
Robert H. Bezanson, president of CoxHealth, issued an open letter calling on the FDA to go farther.
"The initiative should be broadened to include regulation of medical radiation therapy as well," he wrote. "We have also learned that the incident here at CoxHealth is, unfortunately, not an isolated occurrence. Rather, similar instances of medical overradiation have occurred at other hospitals throughout the country. Without increased regulation and oversight, these instances of medical overradiation will likely continue."
Stereotactic radiation therapy employs ultra-high radiation doses to treat very small, localized brain tumors. Because the radiation dose is so high, only one treatment is normally needed.
Health professionals and the radiation imaging industry have increasingly raised concerns that many radiation devices are not calibrated or used properly, exposing patients to dangerous, higher-than-necessary doses. In many ways, they say, advances in imaging technology have outpaced doctors' ability to keep up.
Sources for this story include: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/u....
Showing posts with label overdose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label overdose. Show all posts
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Two-year-old toddlers being dosed up with antipsychotic drugs
(NaturalNews) Children between the ages of two and five are being treated with antipsychotics at twice the rate they were ten years ago, according to a study conducted by researchers from Columbia University and published in the journal Health Affairs.
"It is a worrisome trend, partly because very little is known about the short-term, let alone the long-term, safety of these drugs in this age group," researchers Mark Olfson said.
Although a handful of antipsychotics have been approved by the FDA for use in children, they are intended for older children because few if any studies have been conducted into the effectiveness or safety of the drugs in younger children.
Researchers examined prescription data on more than one million children between the ages of two and five. They found that from 1999-2001, approximately one out of every 1,300 children in this age group was being treated with an antipsychotic drug. By 2007, the rate was one in every 630. Among the oldest children (five-year-olds), the rate has always been higher. In 1999-2001, one in every 650 children was receiving an antipsychotic, while in 2007 one in every 329 was.
Although the drugs are intended for the treatment of severe conditions such as schizophrenia and some forms of autism, the study found that they were being used most commonly for hyperactivity, disruptive behavior, and children with mental developmental disabilities.
Olfson noted that antipsychotics should only be used in four- and five-year-olds as an absolute last resort, when no other form of non-drug therapy has been effective. He questioned whether there is ever any justification for giving the drugs to two- or three-year olds. Yet the study found that less than 50 percent of children under the age of six who are on antipsychotics have ever received any mental health services, including therapy or even a health assessment by a mental health professional.
"You don't see the kinds of mental health services you would expect to see if we were dealing with the most profoundly disturbed toddlers," Olfson said.
Few studies have been done into the effects of psychotropic drugs on a child's developing brain.
Sources for this story include: www.businessweek.com.
"It is a worrisome trend, partly because very little is known about the short-term, let alone the long-term, safety of these drugs in this age group," researchers Mark Olfson said.
Although a handful of antipsychotics have been approved by the FDA for use in children, they are intended for older children because few if any studies have been conducted into the effectiveness or safety of the drugs in younger children.
Researchers examined prescription data on more than one million children between the ages of two and five. They found that from 1999-2001, approximately one out of every 1,300 children in this age group was being treated with an antipsychotic drug. By 2007, the rate was one in every 630. Among the oldest children (five-year-olds), the rate has always been higher. In 1999-2001, one in every 650 children was receiving an antipsychotic, while in 2007 one in every 329 was.
Although the drugs are intended for the treatment of severe conditions such as schizophrenia and some forms of autism, the study found that they were being used most commonly for hyperactivity, disruptive behavior, and children with mental developmental disabilities.
Olfson noted that antipsychotics should only be used in four- and five-year-olds as an absolute last resort, when no other form of non-drug therapy has been effective. He questioned whether there is ever any justification for giving the drugs to two- or three-year olds. Yet the study found that less than 50 percent of children under the age of six who are on antipsychotics have ever received any mental health services, including therapy or even a health assessment by a mental health professional.
"You don't see the kinds of mental health services you would expect to see if we were dealing with the most profoundly disturbed toddlers," Olfson said.
Few studies have been done into the effects of psychotropic drugs on a child's developing brain.
Sources for this story include: www.businessweek.com.
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