A government-funded study involving 149 participants aged 5 to 17 finds that the antidepressant, Citalopram, is no more effective than a placebo and has side-effects twice as bad. About a third of autistic children in the US take this drug or others closely related to it.

Side effects associated with several commonly-prescribed dementia drugs may be putting elderly Canadians at risk, says Queen's University Geriatrics professor Sudeep Gill.

A large proteomics study on the brains of newborn mice provides more evidence that numbing drugs often used in obstetric or pediatric medicine can have profound and long-term negative effects, even after minimal exposure.

Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital have created the first animal model that can reveal the side effects of anesthetic agents (the substances used to block pain during surgery) in individuals genetically predisposed to sudden cardiac death.

Lamivudine has a high rate of antiviral resistance. Sequential anti-HBV treatment is commonly used for lamivudine resistance. We report 4 cases with rapid re-detection of HBV mutants during the lamivudine re-treatment.

Recent advances in genetic screening will lead to safer pharmaceutical drugs, with reduced adverse side effects, if the methods are incorporated in clinical development.

Cells rely on calcium as a universal means of communication. For example, a sudden rush of calcium can trigger nerve cells to convey thoughts in the brain or cause a heart cell to beat. A longstanding mystery has been how cells and molecules manage to appropriately sense and respond to the variety of calcium fluctuations within cells

To develop improved drugs for fighting cancer and other diseases, pharmaceutical researchers are finding increasingly potent drug ingredients that will allow smaller doses while causing fewer side effects, according to an article scheduled for the June 16 issue of Chemical & Engineering News.

A Duke University chemist has apparently solved a long-standing frustration in creating certain synthetic molecules that make up drugs, which could lead to better drugs with fewer side effects.

Early identification of adverse effects of drugs before they are tested in humans is crucial in developing new therapeutics, as unexpected effects account for a third of all drug failures during the development process.

More than 10 percent of women with breast cancer stopped taking a commonly prescribed drug because of joint and muscle pain, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Vioxx and related pain medications were taken off the market in 2004 because they caused dangerous heart problems in some people. A group of scientists, led by Timothy Hla at the University of Connecticut, may now have figured out how these drugs trigger these life-threatening side-effects.