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This week, the American Psychiatric Association released proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. In an update to a story that originally aired in December of last year, Brooke looks at this powerful book and the controversies surrounding the proposed revisions.
The week, The Lancet formally retracted a deeply flawed study that suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The 1998 study has provided fuel for the anti-vaccine movement for years. The Lancet's editor Richard Horton describes how this debacle has forever changed the way the journal will deal with the scientific community and the media.
Blue M&M's may cure paralysis! That’s just one claim made recently in a health segment on network TV. For more than three years, HealthNewsReview.org editor Gary Schwitzer has been methodically reviewing TV health news claims for accuracy and responsibility. But no more; he’s found the vast majority of TV consumer health reports sickening.
According to Gary Schwitzer, there are a few TV M.D.’s who are trying to do good work. Dr. Jonathan LaPook , medical correspondent for "The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" is one of them. He explains how he struggles to do more with less.
Cyberchondria refers to the practice of using Internet search engines to wrongly diagnose oneself with serious illnesses. Carolyn Butler, columnist for The Washington Post, talks about how cyberchondria came to be and she discusses her own bout with the dread disease.
Is our fear of biotechnology impeding the scientific progress we once revered? Michael Specter thinks so. In his new book Denialism, Specter says irrational thinking has led the opposition of vaccines and genetically modified food. The internet and the news media aren’t helping either.
As people get the H1N1 vaccine, there will inevitably be cases of seizures, heart attacks, strokes and miscarriages -- all unrelated to the vaccine itself. Centers for Disease Control media relations director Glen Nowak says his agency is reminding reporters about the difference between correlation and causation.
A 14-year-old British girl named Natalie Morton died last week after receiving a vaccine for cervical cancer. Her tragic death was a result of a tumor near her heart but the media coverage stoked the nation's fear about vaccines. Physician and Guardian columnist Ben Goldacre says the media often exacerbate vaccine phobia.
