Articles related to Family Medicine/General Practice

The FDA added a warning that Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine may trigger Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in a small number of people. Of the 12.5 million Americans who received this vaccine, about 100 people reported having GBS, which is an acquired demyelinating polyneuropathy that often begins in the lower extremities and ascends over time with loss of reflexes, causing muscle weakness, or in the most severe cases, paralysis.

According to a study of 135,000 doctors by Doximity, male physicians made, on average, 28% more than females in 2020, a 3% increase from the 2019 numbers. The survey, along with Medscape’s poll in 2021 that showed male specialist physicians overall making 33% more than females, points to a few other large gender pay gaps, as well as some in which women doctors make salaries closer to those of men.

Despite many doing their research and learning all they can about the COVID-19 vaccine, patients may still come to you for more help. To assist your patients with their questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, here are 12 facts and insights shared by Sherita Golden, MD, MHS, chief diversity officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine, who specializes in diabetes, heart conditions and patterns of disease in diverse communities.

According to a press release from April 2021, “the FDA is working toward issuing proposed product standards within the next year to ban menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and ban all characterizing flavors (including menthol) in cigars.” Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock, MD, said the agency had now “accumulated sufficient evidence establishing the addictiveness and harm from menthol,” which provides a “trajectory” toward ending tobacco-related disease and death.

According to Daniel A. Nation, PhD, associate professor of psychological science at University of California, Irvine: “Studies of angiotensin II receptor blockers and ACE inhibitors have suggested these medicines may confer the greatest benefit to long-term cognition, while other studies have shown the benefits of calcium channel blockers and diuretics on reducing dementia risk.”

The results of the International Ivermectin Project Team were finally published this week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, and although they’re positive, they haven’t escaped criticism, and most researchers still want results from a randomized controlled trial. In addition, many studies included in the analysis were not peer reviewed, which was a limitation, and studies varied widely in terms of dosage, treatment duration, and inclusion criteria.