Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study: Tylenol Makes You More Willing To Take Risks
Fox News: Tylenol May Make You Take More Risks, Study Says
Tylenol may not just stop aches and fevers, it may actually make you more prone to taking risks, according to a study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. “Acetaminophen seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they consider risky activities – they just don’t feel as scared,” co-author of the study Baldwin Way, an associate professor of psychology at The Ohio State University, said in a press release. (McGorry, 9/8)
Ohio State News: A Pain Reliever That Alters Perceptions Of Risk
While acetaminophen is helping you deal with your headache, it may also be making you more willing to take risks, a new study suggests. People who took acetaminophen rated activities like “bungee jumping off a tall bridge” and “speaking your mind about an unpopular issue in a meeting at work” as less risky than people who took a placebo, researchers found. Use of the drug also led people to take more risks in an experiment where they could earn rewards by inflating a virtual balloon on a computer: Sometimes they went too far and the balloon popped. (Grabmeier, 9/8)
In other pharmaceutical and biotech developments —
Stat: Google Enlists The Military To Test Its Cancer-Detection AI
Google has published plenty of papers demonstrating the potential of artificial intelligence to detect cancer earlier and with greater accuracy than doctors can. But so far the benefits have remained entirely theoretical. Now the company is taking a crucial next step — embedding its cancer-detection AI in clinics where it will be used to help guide the care of real patients. (Ross, 9/9)
Stat: Merck Chronic Cough Drug Shows Mixed Results In Late-Stage Clinical Trials
An experimental pill from Merck reduced the frequency of chronic coughing enough to achieve the goal of two Phase 3 clinical trials, but the benefit relative to placebo was small and a majority of patients reported negative alterations to their sense of taste. Merck presented detailed study results of its chronic cough drug gefapixant for the first time on Monday at the annual meeting of the European Respiratory Society. This followed its announcement last March that the Phase 3 studies achieved their primary endpoints. (Feuerstein, 9/8)
