The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| For most children’s migraines, placebos as good as pills Posted: 29 Jan 2013 05:02 AM PST CLEVELAND, Jan 29 — A drug-free placebo pill prevents migraines in children and teens just as well as most headache medicines, according to a US study. Researchers published in JAMA Paediatrics found that only two drugs known to help migraine-plagued adults reduced the frequency of children's headaches better than a placebo. Even in those cases the effect was small — a difference of less than one headache per month compared to the dummy pills.  A study finds that only two drugs known to help migraine-plagued adults reduced the frequency of children's headaches better than a placebo. — AFP pic No drugs have been rigorously tested and approved for preventing migraines in children, so doctors have to rely on medicine for adults, experts said. "All the drugs in our analysis have been found effective in adults with migraine headaches, but few were beneficial among children," wrote study leader Jeffrey Jackson from the medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and colleagues. "This suggests there may be something different about paediatric migraines or that the response to treatment differs between children and adults." In the study, Jackson and his colleagues looked at 21 trials comparing headache drugs to each other or to placebos. They found that only topiramate (marketed as Topamax) and trazodone (Oleptro and Desyrel) significantly reduced the frequency of headaches in children and teens who got regular migraines. Other adult headache prevention medicines, including flunarizine, propanolol and valproate, were of no help. "Parents should be aware that our medication choices aren't as good as they should be," said Jennifer Bickel, a neurologist and headache specialist at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri, who was not part of the study. Placebo pills alone led to a drop in children's headache frequency from between five and six headaches per month to three per month, which might have to do with the effect of seeing a doctor and being reassured the pain isn't due to anything serious, Bickel said. She said there is the least research on the one per cent of children who are most severely affected by migraines, those with chronic daily headaches. For those youth, "we don't have any evidence to suggest that the medications are enough," she said. According to a report from the US Food and Drug Administration published in the same journal issue, two drugs — almotriptan malate (Axert) and rizatriptan benzoate (Maxalt) — are approved to treat, but not prevent, headaches in children and teens. For children who get headaches once a week or less, Bickel said the pain can be treated with over-the-counter painkillers, or even just wait it out in a quiet place. — Reuters |
| EU needs more electric, hybrid cars to reach carbon goals, say study Posted: 29 Jan 2013 04:37 AM PST  The 2014 Cadillac ELR plug-in hybrid is introduced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan January 15, 2013. — Reuters pic The study by Ricardo-AEA will stoke already difficult debate over how to implement a 2020 vehicle emission standard of 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre (g/km). The Commission has said it will publish a document later this year on low carbon car standards beyond 2020. The consultancy, which advises governments and companies, looked at a set of scenarios for 2025 in the study, commissioned by campaign groups Greenpeace and Transport & Environment and seen by Reuters prior to official publication. It found that an average of 70 g/km across the bloc could be achieved by 2025 if new car sales were divided roughly equally between hybrid and conventional cars. The resulting extra manufacturing costs of around 1,615 euros (RM6,777) for a hybrid car could be paid back in less than three years through fuel savings. The same goal could be reached if new car sales included 7 per cent electric vehicles and then only 22 per cent hybrid cars, the study found. Environmental campaigners want an ambitious goal of 60 g/km for 2025 to be agreed alongside the implementation debate on reaching the 2020 goal. That would give vehicle manufacturers, who say product cycles are between five and seven years, enough time to adapt and prevent Europe from losing any innovative edge. A 60 g/km target could be achieved if up to 24 per cent of new vehicles were electric, which is "well within the range of credible market projections and scenarios", the study said. Hybrid vehicles — part powered by electricity and part by fossil fuels — in 2010 made up around 1 per cent of the EU fleet and electric cars around 0.1 per cent, according to figures from the International Council for Clean Transport. Although renowned for gas guzzling, the United States has already set a standard for 2025 that requires the doubling of fuel economy in cars from 2011. The EU argument over implementing 2020 goals is highly technical. Luxury carmakers in Germany, for example, argue for loopholes, known as supercredits, that would allow them to continue producing more polluting cars if they also make some cars with very low emissions such as electric vehicles. To try to spur the uptake of greener transport fuel, the European Commission, this month proposed a law to establish a minimum number of electricity, hydrogen and natural gas refuelling stations. — Reuters |
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