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medscope.blogspot.com

SCOPE: August 2012

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Articles with a medical focus. Friday, August 24, 2012. One asthma death too many. Tisha Smith 1993 - 2008. One person dies every week in Ireland from asthma. It's a shocking statistic and despite improvements over the years in asthma management and patient awareness, this tragic statistic remains unchanged. There is no loss more devastating than the death of a child, a painful reality that Waterford couple, Geraldine and Martin Smith, and their family are struggling to live with every day. I'm her mothe...

medscope.blogspot.com

SCOPE: Placebo - an underrated treatment?

http://medscope.blogspot.com/2012/09/placebo-underrated-treatment.html

Articles with a medical focus. Thursday, September 20, 2012. Placebo - an underrated treatment? If you thought the placebo effect was all in the mind, think again. A placebo is traditionally defined as a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect or in research, a substance that has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs. It is broadly understood that to prescribe a placebo openly as an actual...

medscope.blogspot.com

SCOPE: Pharmacists can help with depression

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Articles with a medical focus. Tuesday, December 11, 2012. Pharmacists can help with depression. The Irish have a hard time opening up when they’re feeling down. Depression is still a difficult subject for people to talk about in this country, with one in five (20%) admitting in a national survey that they are embarrassed to discuss depression with others, including healthcare professionals. Research has confirmed that community pharmacists can play an integral and multifarious role in tackling depressio...

medscope.blogspot.com

SCOPE: March 2011

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Articles with a medical focus. Thursday, March 31, 2011. Almost 150 years after a collection of extraordinary Irish surgical photographs were captured by the photographer’s lens they are published for the first time ever in Scope. Delves into the medical archives to find out more about these unique Victorian images. Is honoured to reproduce these important photographs for the first time in a two-part special. And what happened to these unfortunate patients? Did they survive their radical surgery? Mr O&#8...

medscope.blogspot.com

SCOPE: July 2011

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Articles with a medical focus. Monday, July 18, 2011. Breakthrough therapy for pancreatic cancer? A potential new therapy that targets not the ‘bricks’ but the ‘mortar’ of pancreatic cancer may offer new hope to patients. The research is led by an Irish doctor, writes Eimear Vize. Until now, it was assumed that the immune system needed to attack the cancer cells. Directly in order to be effective, however, this new research from the University of Pennsylvania's (Penn) Abramson Cancer Center revealed that...

medscope.blogspot.com

SCOPE: June 2012

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Articles with a medical focus. Wednesday, June 13, 2012. Diverting care of minor ailments. The old model of healthcare provision in Ireland is in flux; the powers-that-be are advocating a shift to treatment at ‘the lowest level of complexity’ with GPs being asked to man the front lines in the care of chronic diseases as our hospital services creak at the seams. Minor health complains are every day aches and ills that generally require little or no medical intervention, such as hay fever, constipation, dy...

medscope.blogspot.com

SCOPE: September 2012

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Articles with a medical focus. Thursday, September 20, 2012. Placebo - an underrated treatment? If you thought the placebo effect was all in the mind, think again. A placebo is traditionally defined as a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect or in research, a substance that has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs. It is broadly understood that to prescribe a placebo openly as an actual...

medscope.blogspot.com

SCOPE: December 2011

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Articles with a medical focus. Wednesday, December 7, 2011. Drug addiction has a hidden face. The stereotypical image of a down-and-out heroin addict desperate for another fix can obscure the less familiar figure of the 40-something mum who secretly pops painkillers, watching the clock until its time for her next dose. Non-prescription analgesics containing codeine - a short acting opium based drug that belongs to the same family as heroin and morphine –. Although the true extent of OTC misuse/abuse and ...

medscope.blogspot.com

SCOPE: February 2011

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Articles with a medical focus. Tuesday, February 1, 2011. Female Genital Mutilation in Ireland. The young migrant woman sitting across from her doctor has suffered one of the most horrific tortures imaginable. Her smile and relaxed conversation belie her daily discomfort, the agony of her monthly cycle and the enduring nightmare of the day she was held down while a woman cut way her clitoris and part of her labia and then stitched her closed. She was six years old. Also referred to as female genital cutt...