Top 5 Don'ts

Arch Intern Med - Top 5 Primary Care Don'ts

Improbable Research

"Improbable research is research that makes people laugh and then think."

Improbable - Ig Nobel Prizes

Some recent research titles:

"Swearing as a Response to Pain," Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston, Neuroreport, vol. 20 , no. 12, 2009, pp. 1056-60.

"Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men," Manuel S. Barbeito, Charles T. Mathews, and Larry A. Taylor, Applied Microbiology, vol. 15, no. 4, July 1967, pp. 899–906.

"Fellatio by Fruit Bats Prolongs Copulation Time," Min Tan, Gareth Jones, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, Shuyi Zhang and Libiao Zhang, PLoS ONE, vol. 4, no. 10, e7595.

"Are Full or Empty Beer Bottles Sturdier and Does Their Fracture-Threshold Suffice to Break the Human Skull?" Stephan A. Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael J. Thali and Beat P. Kneubuehl, Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, vol. 16, no. 3, April 2009, pp. 138-42.

"Ovulatory Cycle Effects on Tip Earnings by Lap Dancers: Economic Evidence for Human Estrus?" Geoffrey Miller, Joshua M. Tybur, Brent D. Jordan, Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 28, 2007, pp. 375-81.

Prescription Drug Deaths

The controversy continues. On one hand, studies show patients with pain (particularly chronic) are under-treated. On the other hand, studies are showing an annual rise in mortality with prescription drugs, particularly opioid analgesics.

U.S. deaths caused by drug use in 2007 were more common than either alcohol-induced or firearm-related deaths, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Also see MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2011;60:60-61.
Medscape - Drug-Induced Deaths More Common Than Alcohol- or Firearm-Related Fatalities

Prescription Drug Overdose Becomes the Second Leading Cause of Accidental Death
Site - Prescription Drug Addiction (I know, not legit looking but they pulled information from CDC and DAWN).

A man seeking prescription painkillers shot and killed a doctor at a Perry County medical clinic Tuesday morning, according to state police. Clinic employees said Combs became angry and combative after refusing to take a urine test as a requirement for being prescribed pain pills.
Kentucky News - Doctor Killed By Patient

Graph Created From - Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN)

Anesthesia Coma, Not Sleep

Anesthesiologists use the term 'sleep' so as not to scare patients with the word 'coma' (Emery N. Brown, MD, PhD, Harvard). In reality, however, general anesthesia is a type of coma.
NEJM - General Anesthesia, Sleep, And Coma

General anesthesia, the scientists say, is functionally equivalent to brainstem death, and perhaps explains why some patients do not fully recover consciousness for several hours after general anesthesia, as well as why postoperative cognitive dysfunction could persist in elderly patients for several months afterward.