Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 8, 1995 TAG: 9506080094
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium
Many doctors are already routinely prescribing it for severe cases, which afflict about 1 in 25 women.
This use is likely to increase following the publication in today's New England Journal of Medicine of a major new study from Canada.
The study, by far the largest conducted on Prozac for PMS, confirms several smaller reports showing that the medicine substantially reduces symptoms in at least half of all women who take it. The study was paid for by Eli Lilly & Co., the maker of Prozac.
``Prozac has revolutionized the treatment of this disorder,'' said Dr. Teri Pearlstein, who has used it on more than 100 women at Butler Hospital in Providence, R.I.
Dr. Samuel Wood of Palomar-Pomerado Health System in San Diego estimates he has prescribed Prozac for 400 to 500 women with PMS and said the latest work should convince those who still have doubts.
``This is a treatment that can literally change people's lives,'' he said.
- Associated Press
Training urged for reviving child hearts
SAN FRANCISCO - Emergency-room efforts to revive children whose hearts have stopped outside the hospital almost always fail, suggesting that money ought to be spent instead on training paramedics and parents, a researcher says.
In a four-year study at San Francisco General Hospital, only one of 65 children studied was revived in the emergency room, and that baby suffered paralysis and severe retardation, said Dr. Ronald Dieckmann, chief of pediatric medicine.
One baby in the group survived without problems, but she was resuscitated by paramedics and conscious upon arrival at the hospital.
``What is unique about our study is that this reflects the real world,'' Dieckmann said. ``Unfortunately, the hopelessness of the situation suggests we may want to reform our spending priorities.''
Health institutions should shift their training and resources from emergency rooms to paramedics, Dieckmann said.
And he said parents should be educated to take respiratory problems in young children more seriously, since most cardiac arrest cases begin with breathing difficulties, said Dieckmann, an associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.
- Associated Press
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.