Archives of family medicine
-
To examine patient perceptions of professional appropriateness and the potential impact on health care of physician acceptance of gifts from the pharmaceutical industry. ⋯ These results suggest that the public is generally uninformed about personal gifts from pharmaceutical companies to physicians. If public perception regarding the objectivity of the medical profession is to serve as a guide, these findings suggest a reevaluation may be in order for guidelines regarding physician acceptance of gifts from the pharmaceutical industry.
-
Calcium channel blockers inhibit in vitro the lymphocyte response to mitogens and the generation of cytotoxic T-cell and natural killer cell activity. We report on a patient taking verapamil hydrochloride who experienced repeated, prolonged viral infections. ⋯ On lowering the verapamil dose, or changing therapy to clonidine hydrochloride, all the above-mentioned functions returned to normal and a response to influenza vaccination was observed. We speculate that the prolonged viral infection observed in this patient may have been caused by suppression of the immune response by verapamil and we encourage further boad-based studies.