Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. Despite all efforts, no treatments have been found yet. To increase the odds, we need to rethink our approach and try to better understand it.
There is no doubt a regulated market for access to medicinal cannabis is safer, but if cannabis-based products were allowed to bypass efficacy trials, there’s a potential cost to patient safety.
Not all drug development needs to start from scratch. Sometimes researchers discover that a drug developed for one disease can be used for another. Here a cancer drug may show promise for dementia.
Asthma affects around 339 million people worldwide. A new drug promises to lower risks of asthma attack and may eventually allow patients to reduce their dependence on steroids.
A new agency and money for drugs for rare diseases are only very partial steps on the road towards what Canada really needs: a national pharmacare plan.
Clinical trials can assess impact of a medication on a disease. The ideal design is ‘blind’ – when the researchers and participants do not know who is assigned to the different treatments.
People with Down syndrome are at much higher risk of dementia than the general population. Knowing when cognitive changes start is critical for developing new drugs.
Alzheimer’s disease affects many people under the age of 65. The ‘young-onset’ version of the disease is often misdiagnosed as depression or dismissed as a midlife crisis.
An autoimmune disease called vitiligo causes white spots to appear on the body, in some cases completely erasing an individual’s pigmentation. But a new therapy is on the horizon.
Professor of Bioethics & Medicine, Sydney Health Ethics, Haematologist/BMT Physician, Royal North Shore Hospital and Director, Praxis Australia, University of Sydney