Campaign alerts physicians to identify, assist victims of domestic violence

Article Abstract:

Domestic violence, and particularly wife beating, has reached near endemic proportions and claims a victim every 15 seconds. All 27,000 physician members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) will receive a technical manual to help them understand, diagnose and help these patients. The college will also provide pamphlets to be placed in doctors' waiting rooms. One persistent difficulty in helping battered women is that often, due to their abuse, they become shy, passive and frightened. Doctors are warned to be wary of women with these behavioral attitudes, and to be alert when a woman's injuries do not agree with her explanation for them. Most abusive injuries are inflicted on the head, neck, chest, abdomen and breasts. Injuries may also occur on the arms, which are used to deflect blows. Estimates of the number of abused wives vary greatly, with estimates of two to six million victims yearly. However, battering usually does not cause injuries that require emergency care. Any program which focuses only on women who seek emergency medical care will not reach the majority of battered women who do not. One study confirmed that less than four percent of abused woman seek emergency surgical or psychological help from their local hospital. The problem is not isolated to one socioeconomic group; battering injures women of all economic classes. One reason for the interest of the ACOG is that women are at a two-fold greater risk of being beaten when pregnant. The ACOG is also interested in having domestic violence seen as a public health problem because the psychological repercussions of beating can be severe and extend over long periods of time. In addition, children in such households are often abused physically or psychologically and are more likely to become spouse abusers.

Services, Statistics, Information services, Abused women, Family violence, Domestic violence, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

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Drug-Induced QT Prolongation in Women During the Menstrual Cycle

Article Abstract:

Female sex hormones can apparently alter the action of some anti-arrhythmic drugs, according to a study of 38 men and 20 women who took an anti-arrhythmic drug called ibutilide. Women who were in the early part of the menstrual cycle had a different response to the drug than women in the later part and men.

Causes of, Physiological aspects, Menstrual cycle, Arrhythmia, Hormones, Sex, Sex hormones

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Drug Labeling Revisions--Guaranteed to Fail?

Article Abstract:

Doctors, pharmacists, the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA must do more to ensure that patients do not receive drugs that might be dangerous. After the FDA notified doctors that the drug cisapride could cause arrhythmia in some patients, patients at risk still continued to receive the drug.

Analysis, Drugs, Prescription writing, Labeling

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