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Conclusion About Thalidomide
Conclusion About Thalidomide
Conclusion About Thalidomide
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Thalidomide was a pharmaceutical sedative and birth control that was distributed primarily during the 1960’s. It was first developed by the company, Grünenthal, based in Stolberg near Aachen, Germany. In the early 1950’s, thalidomide was first clinically tested and later sold to treat respiratory infections. During this time, it was advertised as “Grippex”, containing ingredients such as acetylsalicylic acid and quinine (Mandal, 2015). During these clinical trials, the scientists behind the development of thalidomide determines that it was “practically impossible” to receive an overdose of the drug. It was soon being sold over the counter, no prescription needed, to millions of Europeans, and began to sweep across the United States in 1960. …show more content…
However, regardless of the outcome, thalidomide is proven to affect our health. In the 1960’s, thalidomide was one of the most dangerous pharmaceuticals on the market. It started off as a drug, prescribed to mothers experiencing mild or severe morning sickness as a result of their pregnancies. It was later discovered by toxicologists that thalidomide was a teratogen. The most common effect of thalidomide to the embryos was peripheral neuropathy (See figure 3). This is a disorder is the result of damage to your peripheral nerves, and often causes weakness, numbness and pain, usually in one’s hands and feet (Mayo Clinic, 2017). Peter G. Wells, a scientist who specializes in toxicology concluded from his extensive research on thalidomide that the reason it causes birth defects, including peripheral neuropathy, is because is breaks down. He discovered that once a small dose of thalidomide has been ingested, it breaks down into many different compounds, which last approximately 40 times longer than thalidomide itself. These compounds ultimately lead to the production of highly toxic forms of oxygen, called "reactive oxygen species," (ROS) including hydrogen peroxide and free radicals that alter disrupt normal embryonic development, causing birth defects (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 2011). Thalidomide negatively impacted a mother's health because it invades the embryo and causes mutations to the genes of the limbs. Thalidomide is also a neurotoxin because peripheral neuropathy causes severe pain and stabbing sensations that are altered signals from the brain to the limbs, causes by the compounds that break down from the initial
Mary Zimmerman framed that women have not had ultimate control over their own bodies and health as a fundamental assumption underlying women’s health movement. Men control and dominate a huge portion of the of decision making roles in the healthcare field, such as health related research, health policy etc. Whereas women are more seen in social positions. According to the article “The Women’s Health Movement” by Mary K. Zimmerman, the concept of medicalization is the “increasing tendency to apply medical definitions and control to phenomena not previously thought of as medical problems (Zola, 1972; Conrad and Schneider, 1980). In the 1950’s a drug called Thalidomide was created by a German company, claiming that it was safe for pregnant women. Although many women were still using this drug during this time, in 1961, reports began to surface that this drug was causing several birth defects and other health problems. The author presented the Thalidomide case as an example of medicalization by showing us the potential consequences of a style medical
...ve physical deformities, decreased birth weight and respiratory difficulties. The drugs can also carry adverse behavioral effects, including high pitched crying, abnormal sleep patterns and decreased attention. Studies have determined that some infants can rectify these behavioral inconsistencies, but that the change is dependent upon a responsive caregiver in a nurturing environment.
“Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the F.D.A. 's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research said people are being harmed and some of the harm is preventable ' ' (Le Fanu, 2014). With millions of drugs on the market, and with multiple drugs just for one ailment, it wouldn’t take much to cause a wrong combination that could cause injury or death. Hospitals across the U.S. reported in 2011 adverse reactions from prescription drugs caused 2.2 million injuries and 106,000 deaths that two-thirds could have been prevented with proper monitoring of prescription drugs. (Bremner,
In today's world, the subject of abortion is a very controversial issue. Some people are totally decided on pro-life or pro-choice, but most are somewhere in between and have mixed feelings. Abortion has been a very important issue since the early 1980's when the topic started to gain popularity. Since then, horrible things have happened to put abortions in the hot seat. There have been bombings on clinics, murders of abortion doctors, and protests that have turned violent. There should be a more discrete and private way to have an abortion without all those hassles. There has been development of a new pill that can help to cool down some heated abortion issues. The new pill is called the RU-486, or commonly referred to as the morning after pill. If the new pill is made legal, it can create a private way for women to have an abortion without having a surgical procedure done, and the pressures of the surrounding world would not be there influencing their decisions.
Imagine being in a family that is expecting their first child. Articles in the newspaper are showing how the chances of miscarriages are increasing. As soon as anxiety starts to take over, a flip of a page in the newspaper changes everything. An article about a new drug called Diethylstilbestrol seems to be on the next page. Diethylstilbestrol, also known as DES, is a medicine that helps prevent women from having pregnancy complications including miscarriages. “This is amazing!” one may say, but do they really know the consequences of taking this new medication? Diethylstilbestrol was a huge turning point for most pregnant women in the early twentieth century; however, it had many underlying negative consequences that would later affect the mother and child with the word no one ever wants to hear; cancer.
There was many of opinions against, however, to call for a new law expanding the FDA's authority. This argument was changed by the thalidomide tragedy, in which thousands of babies were born with messed up heads or bodies after their mothers took thalidomide which was put on the market for treatment of nausea during pregnancies. Thalidomide had not been approved for use in the U.S. because of the concerns of an FDA reviewer, Frances Kelsey about thyroid toxicity. However, thousands of samples had been sent to American doctors during the investigation of the drug's development, which at the time was entirely unregulated by the FDA. Individual members of Congress cited the thalidomide incident in lending their support to expansion of FDA
The affects teratogens can have on the developing fetus can vary greatly. Research provided from the University of Iowa’s on teratogens explains some of the possible outcome to exposure to certain teratogens. Listed birth defects resulting from exposure to teratogens, range from prenatal death, to physical and mental abnormalities.
“According to the General Accounting Office, more than half of the prescription drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 1976 and 1985 caused serious side effects that later caused the drugs to be either relabeled or removed from the market. Drugs app...
For the duration of prenatal development, the unborn offspring may be affected by a multiplicity of teratogens, which are different factors which can have negative effects on the fetus, and can even cause birth defects. While there are countless factors that can affect an unborn child, the most commonly seen teratogens that should be avoided by a pregnant woman including alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. The intake and ingestion of alcohol during pregnancy is the cause of a disorder which is fetal alcohol syndrome. Fetal alcohol syndrome can cause a birth defect which can cause mental and physical disabilities, as well as cardiac defects in the heart for some situations. Some people believe that small amounts of alcohol in moderation can be acceptable, but there are proven facts that show no alcohol should be consumed during any time of pregnancy. Another dangerous teratogen to refrain from is the use of drugs, prescription and illegal. Many kinds of prescription drugs can influence a fetus and can cause physical and
"Science Museum. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine.." Thalidomide. N.p., 19 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
In the last decade, the number of prescriptions for antibiotics has increases. Even though, antibiotics are helpful, an excess amount of antibiotics can be dangerous. Quite often antibiotics are wrongly prescribed to cure viruses when they are meant to target bacteria. Antibiotics are a type of medicine that is prone to kill microorganisms, or bacteria. By examining the PBS documentary Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria and the article “U.S. government taps GlaxoSmithKline for New Antibiotics” by Ben Hirschler as well as a few other articles can help depict the problem that is of doctors prescribing antibiotics wrongly or excessively, which can led to becoming harmful to the body.
In Teri Schultz’s article, “Europe fights the death penalty—with drugs”, it states that Lundbeck had a group of 200 neurologists report that the drug was key for stopping sever epileptic seizures and it’s withdrawal from the US market would have an negative impact on the patients taking it. Thinking that this would be enough evidence for the drug not to be removed from the US markets. However it was not enough to settle the activists as the word spread that prisons were not stopping the use of this drug. Lundbeck and the NGO’s involved then proposed a programme to control the distribution of the drug so that it was only made available to doctors with epileptic patients (Copenhagen). With this in place in would regulate distribution and keep Lundbeck’s intentions for the drug transparent to both the activists and shareholders of the
All jokes rely on the listener being familiar with elements of the joke, which are in most cases simple. This joke, on the other hand, has highly specific familiarity requirements, mostly because the punchline relies on the person’s familiarity with the drug thalidomide. If the listener hasn’t heard of the drug before, or is unfamiliar with its notorious effects, the entire joke is ruined, and none of it is funny. To them, the punchline is simply a non-sequitur.
The case under analysis, Eli Lilly & Company, will be covering the positives and negatives with regards to the business situation and strategy of Eli Lilly. One of the major pharmaceutical and health care companies in its industry, Lilly focused its efforts on the areas of "drug research, development, and marketed to the following areas: neuroscience, endocrinology, oncology, cardiovascular disease, and women's health." Having made a strong comeback in the 1990's due to its remarkably successful antidepressant Prozac, was now facing a potential loss in profits with its patent soon to expire. The problem was not only the soon to expire patent on Prozac, but the fact that Prozac accounted for as much as 30% of total revenue was the reality Eli Lilly now faced. (Pearce & Robinson, 34-1)
Stereochemistry come to the learning of the relative placement of atoms that form the structure of molecules and their use. An essential subdivision of stereochemistry is the learning of chiral molecules. Stereochemistry is also known as 3D chemistry because the prefix "stereo-" means "three-dimensionality”. The learning of stereochemistry centering on stereoisomers and spans the whole range of organic, inorganic, biological, physical and especially supramolecular chemistry. There is some grandness of stereochemistry. Firstly, is the thalidomide incident. Thalidomide is a medicament drug, first processed in 1957 in Germany, appointed for treating morning illness in pregnant women. The drug was revealed to be teratogenic, causing sincere genetic harm to early embryonic growth and development, leading to limb distortion in babies. Some of the several planned mechanisms of teratogenicity touch on various biological purpose for the (R) - and the (S)-thalidomide enantiomers. In the human body however, thalidomide undergoes racemization whereby justified if only one of the two enantiomers is apply as a drug, the other enantiomer is produced as a outcome of metabolism. Accordingly, it is wrong to state that one of the stereoisomer is harmless while the other is teratogenic. Next, the properties of many drugs rely on their stereochemistry. For information: