FDA approves new orphan drug to treat a form of Gaucher disease

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Elelyso (taliglucerase alfa) for long-term enzyme replacement therapy to treat a form of Gaucher disease, a rare genetic disorder.

Gaucher disease occurs in people who do not produce enough of an enzyme called glucocerebrosidase. The enzyme deficiency causes fatty materials (lipids) to collect in the spleen, liver, kidneys, and other organs. The major signs of Gaucher disease include liver or spleen damage, low red blood cell counts (anemia), low blood platelet counts, and bone problems.

Elelyso is an injection that replaces the missing enzyme in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Type 1 (non-neuropathic) Gaucher disease and should be administered by a health care professional every other week. Type 1 Gaucher disease is estimated to affect about 6,000 people in the United States.

“Today’s approval provides for a new enzyme replacement therapy for the select number of patients with Type 1 Gaucher disease,” said Julie Beitz, M.D., director of the Office of Drug Evaluation III in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “It also demonstrates FDA’s commitment to developing treatments for rare diseases.”

Due to the small number of affected patients, the efficacy of Elelyso was evaluated in a total of 56 patients with Type 1 Gaucher disease enrolled in two clinical trials. Many of these patients continued treatment on a longer-term extension study.

In one multi-center, double-blind, parallel-dose trial, the efficacy of Elelyso for use as an initial therapy was evaluated in 31 adult patients who had not previously received enzyme replacement therapy. Patients were randomly selected to receive Elelyso at a dose of either 30 units per kilogram or 60 units/kg.

At both doses, Elelyso was effective in reducing spleen volume, the study’s primary endpoint, from baseline by an average of 29 percent in patients receiving the 30 units/kg dose and by an average of 40 percent in patients receiving the 60 units/kg dose after nine months of treatment. Improvements in liver volume, blood platelet counts, and red blood cell (hemoglobin) levels also were observed.

In the other study, the efficacy of Elelyso was assessed in 25 patients with Type 1 Gaucher disease who were switched from imiglucerase, another enzyme replacement therapy product. In this multi-center, open-label, single-arm trial, patients who had been receiving treatment with imiglucerase for at least two years were switched to Elelyso infusions every other week at the same dose of imiglucerase. Results showed Elelyso was effective in maintaining spleen and liver volumes, blood platelet counts, and hemoglobin levels over a nine month evaluation period.

The most common side effects reported during clinical studies were infusion reactions and allergic reactions. Symptoms of infusion reactions include headache, chest pain or discomfort, weakness, fatigue, hives, skin redness, increased blood pressure, back pain, joint pain, and flushing. As with other intravenous protein products, anaphylaxis has been observed in some patients during Elelyso infusions.

Other commonly observed side effects observed in greater than 10 percent of patients treated with Elelyso included upper respiratory tract infection, common cold-like symptoms (nasopharyngitis), joint pain (arthralgia), influenza, headache, extremity pain, back pain, and urinary tract infections.

Elelyso is manufactured and distributed by New York City-based Pfizer Inc., under license from Protalix BioTherapeutics Inc

Source: FDA

FDA approves new antibacterial treatment for plague

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Levaquin (levofloxacin) to treat patients with plague, a rare and potentially deadly bacterial infection. The agency also approved the drug to reduce the risk of getting plague after exposure to Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the disease.

Plague is extremely rare in most parts of the world, including the United States, with 1,000 to 2,000 cases worldwide each year. The three most common forms of plague are bubonic plague (infection of the lymph nodes), pneumonic plague (infection of the lungs), and septicemic plague (infection of the blood).

Primarily an animal disease, plague can be spread to humans through bites from infected fleas, contact with infected animals or humans, or laboratory exposure. Yersinia pestis also is considered a biological threat agent, which could potentially be used as a bioterrorism agent.

The FDA approved Levaquin for plague under the agency’s Animal Efficacy Rule, which allows efficacy findings from adequate and well-controlled animal studies to be used in cases where it is not feasible or ethical to conduct trials in humans. Because plague is such a rare disease, it would not be possible to conduct adequate efficacy trials in humans. 

Levaquin’s approval was based on an efficacy study conducted in African green monkeys that were infected with the plague bacterium in a laboratory setting. Animals were randomly selected to receive a 10-day regimen of Levaquin or placebo within six hours of the onset of fever after being infected. The primary endpoint was survival at the end of the study. Of the 17 monkeys treated with Levaquin, 94 percent survived. None of the seven monkeys treated with placebo survived.

“Today’s approval broadens the available therapeutic treatments for plague,” said Edward Cox, M.D., M.P.H, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “It also further demonstrates the usefulness of animal model studies to collect needed efficacy data in cases where human trials are not ethical or feasible.”

Levaquin’s safety has been evidenced by studies and post-marketing information for the drug’s existing medical uses. Common side effects reported in more than 3 percent of patients were nausea, headache, diarrhea, insomnia, constipation, and dizziness.

Serious but rare side effects include tendinitis and tendon rupture, worsening of muscle weakness in people with the neuromuscular disorder myasthenia gravis, allergic reactions, liver damage, abnormalities of the blood, effects on the nervous system, and abnormal heart rhythm. However, given that plague is a very serious and often deadly condition, the benefit of Levaquin for treating plague outweighs these potential risks. 

The application for Levaquin was granted a priority review by the FDA. It joins streptomycin, doxycycline, tetracycline, and other antibacterial drugs in the tetracycline group as FDA-approved treatments for plague.

Levaquin is manufactured by Raritan, N.J.-based Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a part of Johnson & Johnson.

Treating Type 2 Diabetes in Youth

 

A combination of 2 diabetes drugs, metformin and rosiglitazone, was more effective in treating youth with type 2 diabetes than metformin alone, according to a new study.

Rising childhood obesity in America has brought more cases of type 2 diabetes in youth. Type 2 diabetes heightens the risk for various health conditions, including coronary artery disease, stroke, nerve damage and kidney and eye disease. To fend off these complications, it's critical for young people with type 2 diabetes to control their blood glucose levels. However, because type 2 diabetes has been primarily an adult illness, information about how to effectively treat youth has been limited.

Several drugs are available to treat adults with type 2 diabetes. But only one oral medication—metformin—is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating young people with type 2 diabetes. The Treatment Options for type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth (TODAY) study set out to test additional approaches to controlling blood glucose levels in youth. The study was funded primarily by NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

The researchers enrolled 699 youth, ages 10 to 17, who had type 2 diabetes for less than 2 years. All participants were considered overweight or obese. On average, their body mass index (BMI) was at the 98th percentile. The 85th percentile is considered overweight; 95th percentile is considered obese. The youth were randomly assigned to 3 treatment groups: metformin alone, metformin plus rosiglitazone (sold as Avandamet), and metformin plus intensive lifestyle changes aimed at weight loss and increased physical activity. Results appeared on April 29, 2012, in the early online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers were surprised to find that, over an average follow-up of 46 months, metformin alone maintained acceptable, long-term blood glucose control in only about half the youth. Also unexpected was the failure rate in the metformin plus lifestyle group, which was little better than metformin alone. In contrast, the failure rate was under 39% in the metformin and rosiglitazone group, a 25% reduction from metformin alone.

The use of rosiglitazone in adults has been restricted because studies linked its use in adults to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. After a careful examination of the safety data, the TODAY Data and Safety Monitoring Board recommended that the study continue to test rosiglitazone. There were no cardiac events such as heart attack during the study.

“The results of this study tell us it might be good to start with a more aggressive drug treatment approach in youth with type 2 diabetes,” says TODAY study chair Dr. Philip Zeitler of Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora. “We are learning that type 2 diabetes is a more aggressive disease in youth than in adults and progresses more rapidly, which could be why metformin alone had a higher than expected failure rate.”

Further study will be needed to see if more aggressive therapy will yield long-term benefits for youth with type 2 diabetes as they move into adulthood. Another question is why the rigorous lifestyle intervention didn’t bring the benefits that similar strategies have produced in adults. More research will be needed to design approaches that produce effective lifestyle changes for young people with type 2 diabetes.

Source: NIH

Awake mental replay of past experiences critical for learning Blocking it stumps memory-guided decision-making in rats — NIH-funded study

 

Awake mental replay of past experiences is essential for making informed choices, suggests a study in rats. Without it, the animals’ memory-based decision-making faltered, say scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health. The researchers blocked learning from, and acting on, past experience by selectively suppressing replay — encoded as split-second bursts of neuronal activity in the memory hubs of rats performing a maze task.

"It appears to be these ripple-like bursts in electrical activity in the hippocampus that enable us to think about future possibilities based on past experiences and decide what to do," explained Loren Frank, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, a grantee of the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). "Similar patterns of hippocampus activity have been detected in humans during similar situations."

Frank, Shantanu Jadhav, Ph.D., and colleagues, report on their discovery online in the journal Science, Thursday, May 3, 2012.

"These results add to evidence that the brain encodes information not only in the amount of neuronal activity, but that its rhythm and synchronicity also play a crucial role," said Bettina Osborn, Ph.D., of the NIMH Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science, which funded the research.

Frank and colleagues had discovered in previous studies that the rhythmic ripple-like activity in the hippocampus coincided with awake mental replay of past experiences, which occurs during lulls in the rats' activity. The same signal during sleep is known to help consolidate memories. So the researchers hypothesized that these awake ripple states are required for memory-guided decision-making. To test this in the current study, they selectively suppressed the ripple activity without disturbing other functions, while monitoring any effects on the animals’ performance in a maze task.

During breaks in trials when the rat was awake but inactive, areas in the brain's memory hub emitted split-second bursts of ripple-like electrical activity (SWRs). This indicated that the rat was mentally replaying an earlier experience in the maze. Individual neurons in the areas become associated with a particular place. These place cells spike when the animal is that place or — it turns out — is just mentally replaying the experience of being in that place. Embedded in the ripple-like signal above are place cells spiking in the same sequence as they did when the rat first walked through the maze (Color-coded hatch marks match the path in the maze.). Rats' performance in the maze task faltered when these awake mental replay events were blocked, revealing that they are important for memory-guided decision-making. Source: Shantanu Jadhav, Ph.D., University of California San Francisco

Individual neurons in certain areas of the hippocampus become associated with a particular place. These place cells fire when the animal is in that place or — it turns out — is just mentally replaying the experience of being in that place.

In the experimental situation, the rat needs to learn a rule to get a reward. It must remember which of two outer arms of a W-shaped maze it had visited previously and alternate between them – visiting the opposite arm after first visiting the center arm. The ripple activity occurs when rats are inactive during breaks between trials.

Place cells associated with the maze fire in rapid succession and in synchrony with other neurons in the neighborhood. The same place cells fire in the same sequence as they did when the rat first walked through the maze — suggesting that the rat is mentally replaying the earlier experience, but on a much faster timescale.

In the current study, an automatic feedback system shut down place cell firing, via mild electrical stimulation, whenever it detected ripple activity, thereby also preventing the replay of the maze memory. Without benefit of mental replay, rats' performance on the maze task deteriorated. The impairment was in the animals' spatial working memory — their ability to link immediate and earlier past experience to the reward. This ability was required to correctly decide which outside arm to visit after exiting the center arm during outbound trials.

In this YouTube clip, NIMH grantee Loren Frank, Ph.D., explains how rats mentally replay recent experiences in a maze. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjQQ8l1vCOE#t=58m21s

The researchers propose that awake replay in the hippocampus provides such information about past locations and future options to the brain’s executive hub, the prefrontal cortex, which learns the alternation rule and applies it to guide behavior.

Even though the replay events in rats last just a fraction of a second, Frank notes that they are not unlike our own experience of memories, which tend to compress often lengthy events into snippets of just the highlights of what happened to us.

"We think the brain is using these same ripple-like bursts for many things," he explained. "It’s using them for retrieving memories, exploring possibilities — day-dreaming — and for strengthening memories."

The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure. For more information, visit http://www.nimh.nih.gov.

Source: NIH

Join BIOSCIENCE TECHNOLOGY Magazine for an Educational, Audio Webcast

 

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The past few years have seen a boom in the number of papers published covering 3D cell culture, as researchers working in areas from cancer research to stem cells are increasingly seeing the benefits of this technique. This is due, in part, to the number of new tools designed to help researchers achieve better results. Bioscience Technology, along with 3D Biomatrix and AMSBIO, invite you to join us for a Webinar to discuss the latest advances.

Meghan Cuddihy, PhD, from 3D Biomatrix will discuss the use of matrix- free spheroid cultures, primarily in the context of cancer research and drug discovery. Specific detail will be given to 3D Biomatrix's Perfecta3D TM Hanging Drop Plates, which are versatile, matrix-free 3D well-plates designed to simplify and streamline spheroid formation, culture, and subsequent testing of the 3D cell cultures. The different applications and cell types for the Perfecta3D Hanging Drop Plates will be discussed, as will co-culture data and preliminary data on anti-cancer drug testing.

For applications where hanging drop are not applicable and to fulfill the increased demand for 3D cell cultures, AMSBIO supplies the most advanced and extensive range of 3D tools to the life science community. Erik Miljan, PhD, from Simply Cells Ltd assesses the impact on the physiological relevance of in vitro cell based models using traditional ECM proteins, recombinant Biomimetics hydrogels and other matrices like polystyrene scaffolds in drug discovery and disease modeling applications. Highlighting real examples including spheroid and neuronal stem cell culture, Dr. Miljan will demonstrate how the different 3D technologies that AMSBIO provides can help researchers to successfully perform the 3D applications they need.

REMINDER: Attend this live webcast and pose your critical questions to the panel of experts during the live Q&A session during the broadcast.

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HEPATITIS A

 

Love Your Heart Take Steps To Reduce Heart Risks

 

February is American Heart Month—a time to reflect on the sobering fact that heart disease remains the number one killer of both women and men in the United States. The good news is you have the power to protect and improve your heart health.

NIH and other government agencies have been working to advance our understanding of heart disease so that people can live longer, healthier lives. Research has found that you can lower your risk for heart disease simply by adopting sensible health habits.

To protect your heart, the first step is to learn your own personal risk factors for heart disease. Risk factors are conditions or habits that make you more likely to develop a disease. Risk factors can also increase the chances that an existing disease will get worse.

Certain risk factors—like getting older or having a family history of heart disease—can’t be changed. But you do have control over some important risk factors such as high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, excess weight, diabetes and physical inactivity. Many people have more than one risk factor. To safeguard your heart, it’s best to lower or eliminate as many as you can because they tend to “gang up” and worsen each other’s effects.

A large NIH-supported study published last month underscores the importance of managing your risk factors. Scientists found that middle-aged adults with one or more elevated risk factors, such as high blood pressure, were much more likely to have a heart attack or other major heart-related event during their remaining lifetime than people with optimal levels of risk factors.

“For example, women with at least 2 major risk factors were 3 times as likely to die from cardiovasculardisease as women with none or 1 risk factor,” says Dr. Susan B. Shurin, acting director of NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. “You can and should make a difference in your heart health by understanding and addressing your personal risk.”

To tackle your heart risk factors, it helps to know your numbers. Ask your health care provider to measure your blood cholesterol and blood pressure. Then determine if your weight is in the healthy range.

The higher your cholesterol level, the greater your risk for heart disease or heart attack. High blood cholesterol itself doesn’t cause symptoms, so you can’t know if your cholesterol is too high unless you have it tested. Routine blood tests can show your overall cholesterol level and separate levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, HDL (“good”) cholesterol and triglycerides. All of these blood measurements are linked to your heart health.

High blood pressure (hypertension) is another major risk factor for heart disease, as well as for stroke. High blood pressure is often called the “silent killer” because, like high cholesterol, it usually has no symptoms. Blood pressure is always reported as 2 numbers, and any numbers above 120/80 mmHg raise your risk of heart disease and stroke.

“Scientific evidence is strong that controlling high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure prevents cardiac events such as heart attacks,” says Dr. Michael Lauer, a heart disease specialist at NIH. 

Your weight is another important number to know. To find out if you need to lose weight to reduce your risk of heart disease, you’ll need to calculate your body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height). This NIH web page can help: www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm. A BMI between 25 and 29.9 means that you’re overweight, while a BMI of 30 or higher means obesity.

Next, take out a tape measure. A waist measurement of more than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men raises the risk of heart disease and other serious health conditions. Fortunately, even a small weight loss (between 5% and 10% of your current weight) can help lower your risk.

NIH has many tools available to help you aim for a healthy weight, including physical activity tips and a menu planner. To learn more, visit http://healthyweight.nhlbi.nih.gov/.

A heart-healthy diet includes a variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, as well as lean meats, poultry, fish, beans and fat-free or low-fat dairy products. Try to avoid saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium (salt) and added sugar.

NIH's Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diets both promote healthy eating. U.S. News & World Report named TLC and DASH the top 2 overall diets for 2012.

Regular physical activity is another powerful way to reduce your risk of heart-related problems and enjoy a host of other health benefits. To make physical activity a pleasure rather than a chore, choose activities you enjoy. Take a brisk walk, play ball, lift light weights, dance or garden. Even taking the stairs instead of an elevator can make a difference.

“At least 2 and a half hours a week of moderate-intensity physical activity can lower your risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension and diabetes—a winner on multiple counts,” says Dr. Diane Bild, a cardiovascular epidemiologist at NIH.

If you have diabetes, it’s important to keep your blood sugar, or glucose, under control. About two-thirds of people with diabetes die of heart or blood vessel disease. If you’re at risk for diabetes, modest changes in diet and level of physical activity can often prevent or delay its development.

If you happen to be a smoker, the best thing you can do for your heart is stop. People who smoke are up to 6 times more likely to suffer a heart attack than nonsmokers. The risk of heart attack increases with the number of cigarettes smoked each day.

The good news is that quitting smoking will immediately begin to reduce your risk, and the benefit in reduced risk will continue to increase over time. Just one year after you stop smoking, your risk will have dropped by more than half.

Beyond controlling your risk factors, you should be alert to certain symptoms and get checked by a doctor. Common signals that something‘s wrong with your heart include angina—pain in the chest, shoulders, arms, neck, jaw or back—as well as shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat or palpitations (arrhythmia)
and fatigue.

Be aware that the symptoms of a heart attack can vary from person to person. If you’ve already had a heart attack, your symptoms may not be the same if you have another one.

Finally, don’t forget that you can influence your loved ones’ heart health by setting an example. Do you have children, grandchildren or other young people who look up to you? If you follow a heart-healthy lifestyle, it’s more likely that they will, too.  Because heart disease begins in childhood, one of the best things you can do for those you love is to help children build strong bodies and healthy habits. 

The bottom line is, it’s never too late to take steps to protect your heart. It’s also never too early. Start today to keep your heart strong. Talk to your doctor about your risk and to create an action plan. Love your heart.

Source: NIH

Global Immunization: Polio in India

 

CDC Continues to work with its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) including Rotary International, WHO, UNICEF, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to rid the world of polio forever. In surpassing a year without detecting a single case of wild poliovirus, India has achieved a major milestone. This clearly demonstrates that strong political will, concerted and sustained high quality effort, and continued commitment can stop polio.

Published by CDCStreamingHealth

The Sorrow of Suicide Awareness and Action Can Help Save a Life

 

Suicide is tragic. It cuts a life short, and it devastates the family, friends and loved ones left behind. Those who survive a suicide attempt might end up with severe disability or other injuries. The children of people who die by suicide are more likely to later die by suicide themselves. With such extreme consequences, why would anyone make the dire decision to choose death over life?

That’s a question scientists have been struggling to answer for decades. “When you’re in a suicidal state, you’re kind of closing down your options. You see it as the only solution. You’re not really able to entertain other ideas,” says Dr. Jane Pearson, who heads a suicide research consortium at NIH. “What’s the science behind that? What’s happening in the brain that leads people to think so dysfunctionally?”

Only 20 years ago, little was known about the biology of suicide. But NIH-funded research has helped to open up new avenues for exploring the underlying causes of suicide. While the biological details are still being worked out, scientists have uncovered many clues to identify people at greatest risk for suicidal thoughts and actions.

Recognizing those at risk is essential. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death nationwide, and it’s the 3rd leading cause of death among adolescents. Nearly 37,000 Americans died by suicide in 2009, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than half of those deaths were from firearms.

People of all genders, ages and ethnicities are at risk for suicide. Women are more likely than men to attempt suicide, but men are more likely to die by suicide. That’s because men often choose deadlier methods, such as firearms or suffocation.

“The highest risk groups are older men,” says Pearson. “In fact, white men who are 85 and older have a rate of suicide that’s 4 times the national average.”

Suicide risk is also higher among people who have certain mental disorders, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Depression affects more than half of those who die by suicide. Other risk factors include a prior suicide attempt, a family history of suicide, substance abuse, or having guns or other firearms in the home.

In the past, many scientists believed that suicide was a terrible side effect of other mental disorders. But why is it that only a small proportion of people with depression or other mental conditions attempt suicide? A growing body of evidence suggests that there is something unique about their biology that can tip them over the edge.

“We’ve found many systems in the brain that are broken with suicide, especially in the front part above the eye—called the orbital prefrontal cortex. That area of the brain is involved in inhibiting behaviors that are damaging, like being unable to inhibit the urge to kill oneself,” says Dr. Victoria Arango, a suicide researcher at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Over the decades, Arango and her colleagues have conducted detailed studies of brain structure and biology in hundreds of suicide victims. They’ve found that certain brain regions in suicide have fewer nerve cells and altered receptors for neurotransmitters. Abnormalities related to the neurotransmitter serotonin have been linked to suicide in many studies. Scientists have not yet figured out if these flaws in serotonin directly contribute to suicide or—more likely—if serotonin is one part of a complicated chemical pathway to suicide. Serotonin is also believed to play a key role in depression and response to stress and trauma.

“Stress and trauma certainly play a big role in suicide, especially early life stress,” says Dr. Douglas Meinecke, an NIH scientist who studies the molecular details of mental disorders. Several research teams have found evidence that traumatic childhood experiences—such as abuse or violence—can “tag” certain genes in the brain. These tags, called epigenetic markers, are actually molecules that attach to genes. They can have a lasting effect on whether the genes are turned off or on.

Some NIH-funded studies have shown that suicide victims who were abused as children have unique epigenetic markers on certain genes. These markers were not found in suicide victims with no history of childhood abuse or in people who died in accidents. More research into how stress affects genes and suicide risk might offer new chances for early intervention.

Current approaches to treating or preventing suicide generally aim to relieve the accompanying mental condition or other risk factors. “If you focus on making people who have mental disorders as well as they can be, managing life as well as they can or reducing their suicidal thoughts, you can greatly reduce suicide overall,” says Meinecke.

Medications—such as antidepressants and antipsychotics—can help. Psychotherapy, or “talk therapy,” can also be effective. One type, called cognitive behavioral therapy, can help people learn new ways to deal with stressful situations by training them to consider alternative actions when thoughts of suicide arise.

One of the most effective tools for preventing suicide is to know the warning signs and take quick action to get the person into treatment. “One of the biggest indicators of suicide risk is when somebody begins talking about suicide,” says Dr. David Brent, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh who studies suicide in families. “We used to think that talking about suicide meant you weren’t going to do it, but it’s really the opposite. Other warning signs include withdrawal from usual activities, a change in mood or a change in sleep patterns.”

Never ignore someone’s talk of suicide. You can ask directly if the person has ever thought of harming himself or herself. Most people will answer honestly, and the question itself won’t push a person to attempt suicide.

See the “Wise Choices” box to learn more, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This free, federally funded service is available to anyone, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All calls are confidential.

Source: NIH

Avoiding Drug Interactions (Consumer Update)

This FDA Consumer Update video provides helpful tips to avoid the three main types of interactions: drugs with food and beverages, drugs with dietary supplements, and drugs with other drugs. Learn more at http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm096386.htm

Source: FDA