Brain Tumors More Common in Better Educated, Wealthier Folks: Study

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — People who have a college education, a professional career or a big paycheck may be more likely to be diagnosed with a brain tumor than people who are less well-off or not as educated, a new study reports.

Medical data for more than 4.3 million residents of Sweden revealed that people with higher education or better jobs were more likely to be found with one of three types of brain tumor — glioma, meningioma or acoustic neuroma.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that achievement in life increases the risk of brain tumors, said lead researcher Amal Khanolkar, a research associate with University College London’s Institute of Child Health. People with money or a better education might be better able to notice something’s wrong with their health.

“People with higher education are perhaps more likely to detect symptoms and seek medical care earlier on,” Khanolkar said. These groups might also be more apt to have complete health data recorded in national cancer registries, such as the one used in this study, he said.

The study also found that single men are more likely to be diagnosed with brain tumors. “Spouses might notice symptoms in their partners, ensuing timely medical access,” he said.

For the study, Khanolkar and his colleagues gathered data on people living in Sweden in 1991, and used the country’s National Cancer Register to see if these folks had developed a brain tumor between 1993 and 2010.

During that period, about 5,700 men and 7,100 women developed at least one of the three brain tumors tracked.

Gliomas are cancerous tumors that develop in glial cells that protect neurons, while meningiomas are mostly noncancerous tumors that arise in the tissues that protect the brain and spinal cord. Acoustic neuromas are noncancerous tumors that affect the nerve used for hearing and balance.

Men with three or more years of college were 19 percent more likely to be diagnosed with glioma compared to less-educated men, while women with similar educational attainment were 23 percent more likely to be diagnosed with glioma and 16 percent more likely to have meningioma than their less-educated peers, researchers found.

A high level of disposable income was associated with a 14 percent increased risk of glioma in men, while professional or managerial jobs were associated with men’s increased risk of glioma by 20 percent and acoustic neuroma by 50 percent.

Women in a professional or managerial job were associated with a 26 percent increased risk of glioma and a 14 percent increased risk of meningioma, versus women in blue-collar jobs.

Very little is known about what causes brain tumors, so studies like this are valuable for unearthing threads that indicate potential explanations, said Elizabeth Ward, the American Cancer Society’s national vice president for intramural research.

“All of this is really a clue that will help us look deeper and understand the reasons for these differences,” Ward said.

The National Brain Tumor Society (NBTS) noted that the study only establishes an association between these factors and brain tumors.

“An ‘association’ does not constitute cause or risk factor, and does not necessarily infer that education, money, and/or marriage have any prospective effect on whether individuals, or groups of people, may develop a brain tumor,” the NBTS said in a written statement.

The study results were published June 20 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Ward agreed that people with higher education might be more likely to figure out something’s wrong with them. “If you were more educated, you might go to the internet and say, “Hmm, I’ve got hearing loss in my right ear, I need to go get it checked out,’ but someone with less education might pass it off,” she said.

But more well-to-do people might have access to certain medications that increase their risk of brain tumors, such as hormone replacement therapies, or other differences in lifestyle that could potentially affect their risk, Ward added.

In any case, brain tumors are rare for any adult, regardless of socioeconomic status, Ward said. According to the American Cancer Society, a person’s lifetime risk of a malignant brain or spinal cord tumor is less than 1 percent.

“There’s no cause for people to be concerned about their own individual risk, based on this study,” Ward said.

More information

For more on brain tumors, visit the American Cancer Society.

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Dos & Don’ts for Easy Splinter Removal

MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Along with the hot days of summer will come a perennial hazard of outdoor living: splinters.

Fortunately, dermatologists say splinters are usually easy to remove so you or your child can move on to more pleasant activities.

“Splinters come in all shapes and sizes, and they can really hurt,” said Dr. Robert Sidbury, division chief of dermatology at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

“To reduce pain and the possibility of an infection, splinters should be removed as quickly as possible,” he added in a news release from the American Academy of Dermatology.

Sidbury provided the following tips for safe and easy splinter removal:

• With soap and water, gently wash and dry the area where the splinter has entered the skin.
• Use a magnifying glass if the splinter is very small. Look to see its size and the direction it entered the skin.
• To remove the splinter, use tweezers to grab on to the part sticking out of the skin. But first sterilize the tip of the tweezers with rubbing alcohol.
• Don’t risk splitting the splinter into parts by trying to squeeze it out.
• If the entire splinter is under the skin, you may need a small needle to remove it. Sterilize the needle with rubbing alcohol and pierce the skin surface at one end of the splinter. (Use a magnifying glass, and ask for help, if necessary). Then, use the sterilized tweezers to pull the splinter out once it comes up out of the skin.
• Finally, clean the skin area with soap and water and apply petroleum jelly and a bandage.

“Most splinters can be safely removed at home, but some may require medical assistance,” Sidbury said. “See your doctor or a board-certified dermatologist if your splinter is very large, deep, located in or near your eye or if the area becomes infected.”

More information

For more about splinters, visit the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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Many Seniors Saying No to Retirement

MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Almost two-thirds of older U.S. adults say they’ll choose work over retirement after they reach age 65, a new survey shows.

“Not only are older Americans going to work longer, but four in 10 respondents are planning to change career fields in the future. These results point to significant changes in the American workforce with impacts likely felt by workers and employers,” said survey author Trevor Tompson, director of the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago.

The researchers interviewed just over 1,000 working adults aged 50 and older. One-quarter of them said they never plan to retire. That included 33 percent of those earning less than $50,000 a year and 20 percent of those earning $100,000 or more a year.

Sixty percent of those aged 50 to 64 plan to work past age 65, and nearly half of those 65 and older said they already work or plan to work.

Those aged 65 and older who are working put in an average of 31 hours a week on the job, the survey showed.

The more than 40 percent of respondents who spent at least 20 years working for the same employer were more excited and less anxious about retirement than those who did not stay with a single employer for as long.

Many respondents who want to remain in or rejoin the workforce plan to switch either professional fields or employers in the future. Those aged 65 and older are especially likely to do so, the survey found.

A large minority of the survey participants are boosting their skills by taking job training or additional education, the survey revealed.

One-quarter of the respondents have looked for a job in the past five years, but many have had difficulties. Of these, one-third said it was so difficult that they gave up at some point during their job search, according to the researchers.

“The circumstances and future plans of older Americans must be well understood by decision-makers,” Tompson said in a University of Chicago news release.

Between 2003 and 2013, the number of Americans 65 and older rose from almost 36 million to close to 45 million, and that number is expected to rise to just over 82 million over the next 25 years. The percentage of Americans aged 65 and older in the overall population will rise from 14 percent in 2013 to almost 22 percent in 2040, the researchers said.

More information

The AARP has more about older Americans and work.

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Job Hunting? Maybe a Therapist Can Help

MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The unemployed may find help for their job search in an unexpected place — a therapist’s office.

A type of counseling called cognitive behavioral therapy teaches skills that might help people who are unemployed get a job, a new study suggests.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be used to help people with depression. This type of therapy teaches people to identify negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones.

“Searching for a job is difficult in any circumstance, but it may be even more difficult for people who are depressed,” said study co-author Daniel Strunk, an associate professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

“But we found that there are specific skills that can help not only manage the symptoms of depression but also make it more likely that a person will receive a job offer,” Strunk said in a university news release.

The study included 75 unemployed people. They were between the ages of 20 and 67. About one-third had symptoms indicating moderate to severe depression. The other two-thirds had mild or no depression.

Over three months, those participants who reported greater use of CBT-type skills, such as countering their own negative thoughts, were more likely to have improvements in depression symptoms. They were also more likely to have received a job offer, the study found.

“The people who got jobs in our study were more likely to be putting into practice the skills that we try to teach people in cognitive therapy,” Strunk said.

Many unemployed people get discouraged as they look work. While the study only found an association, these findings suggest a way that job seekers — particularly those who are depressed — might improve their chances of success, researchers said.

“Using cognitive behavioral skills, people can overcome some of the negative thinking that may be holding them back and making it less likely to succeed in their job search,” Strunk said.

The study was published in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

More information

The National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists has more on cognitive behavioral therapy.

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Are Commercial Brain-Training Programs Worth It?

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Brain-training programs like Lumosity or NeuroNation frequently tout scientific studies that show their products can truly sharpen a person’s intellect.

But at least some of these alleged benefits might be due to a fleeting placebo effect, a new study suggests.

If people are told they are participating in a brain-boosting study, they wind up performing 5 to 10 points better on follow-up IQ tests than those left in the dark about the possible mental benefits of the exercise, researchers report.

“We think this is very strong evidence that placebo effects can lead to positive outcomes, as opposed to the training leading to positive outcomes,” said lead researcher Cyrus Foroughi, a doctoral student with the department of psychology at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Va.

This doesn’t mean that brain-training programs offer no benefit at all, but “it’s fair to say this suggests a placebo effect can be enhancing these outcomes,” Foroughi said.

For the study, Foroughi and his colleagues recruited 50 participants using two different fliers posted around a college campus.

One flier specifically promoted a “Brain Training & Cognitive Enhancement” study, noting that “numerous studies have shown that working memory training can increase fluid intelligence.” The other flier said nothing of brain training, simply offering research participation credits for taking part in an undefined study.

Both groups took a preliminary IQ test, and then completed an hour of brain training. “We did a very, very short training so we would not induce any real effect,” Foroughi said, noting it is extremely unlikely that just one hour of training could boost anyone’s intellect.

The next day, everyone took a follow-up IQ test. Participants told of the brain benefits experienced a 5- to 10-point increase in their score on the standard 100-point IQ test, but those who only knew they were taking part in a research project tested much the same as they did before.

“We don’t believe this is because they actually got smarter after one hour of training,” Foroughi said.

The researchers aren’t sure how a placebo effect could improve a person’s IQ score. Foroughi said it might be due to students being more motivated or feeling more confident when they took the follow-up intelligence tests.

Lumos Labs, the company behind Lumosity, believes Foroughi’s study is “interesting and underscores the importance of proper study design,” said Lumos Labs Community Manager Sara Colvin.

“It’s important to note that the researchers explicitly tried to ‘avoid a true training effect,’ and these results should not be oversimplified and construed to invalidate the numerous other studies conducted on cognitive training that have found a significant training effect,” she added.

Colvin said the company is working with researchers and others in the brain-training industry to develop standards for future research.

A leading brain-training researcher, Dr. Adam Gazzaley, agreed the study proved “an important finding” that should help shape future studies. Training programs can benefit brain health, he said, but research to date may not have done enough to control for a potential placebo effect.

“With careful development and high-level rigorous validation, we will see these tools emerge as powerful approaches to improve cognitive ability,” said Gazzaley, a professor of neurology, physiology and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. “But I agree that right now, with the data that’s out there, caution is certainly advised.”

There are plenty of things people can do to protect and improve their intellect while these programs are perfected, said Gazzaley, who is also a spokesman for the American Federation for Aging Research. Exercise, eating a healthy diet, challenging your brain with games and puzzles, getting good sleep and managing stress all have been shown to help keep you mentally sharp.

Foroughi said that people who want to challenge their brains might be better off doing something they truly enjoy, such as a crossword puzzle or sudoku, rather than plodding through a brain-training program.

“If my grandma asked me, that’s what I would tell her — do whatever you enjoy doing,” he said.

The findings appear in the June 20 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information

For more on maintaining brain health, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Just a Little of Statins’ Effect Enough to Help Heart: Study

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Giving high doses of statins to patients with heart disease doesn’t lower the risk of future heart trouble any more than moderate doses of the cholesterol-lowering drugs do, a new study finds.

Having heart disease raises the risk of heart attack and stroke, as blood vessels become clogged and cut the normal flow of blood and oxygen to the heart.

These patients are typically prescribed statins on a long-term basis, to lower levels of vessel-clogging LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.

But experts remain conflicted about exactly how low LDL cholesterol levels should go.

“Our study demonstrates that physicians treating patients with heart disease and elevated levels of cholesterol with statins have to ensure that patients meet a target of less than 100 mg/dL to prevent future [heart] events,” said study author Dr. Morton Leibowitz. He is a senior physician with the Clalit Research Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel.

“There is, however, no evidence at present that increasing the intensity of treatment to lower LDL levels further adds benefit,” added Leibowitz, who is also a clinical associate professor of medicine/cardiology at the NYU School of Medicine in New York City.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), millions of Americans currently take statins, including well-known brands such as Crestor (rosuvastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin), and Zocor (simvastatin), among others.

The FDA notes there is a small risk that chronic statin use may increase the risk for type 2 diabetes, alongside other “rare” side effects such as memory loss, muscle weakness/pain or liver injury.

But the FDA also stresses that the heart benefits of lowering cholesterol levels with statins is “indisputable.”

What is in dispute is what the ideal target cholesterol level should be.

For example, while the American Heart Association does not advocate for any specific LDL target level, the European Society of Cardiology recommends that LDL be brought down to a relatively “low” level of 69 mg/dL or less.

To examine the issue, investigators tracked more than 31,600 patients, ranging in age from 30 to 84, all of whom had been diagnosed with heart disease between 2009 and the end of 2013. All had been taking statins for at least one year.

Nearly 30 percent were found to have “low” LDL levels, meaning a reading of 70 mg/dL or less. More than half had a “moderate” LDL level of between 70.1 and 100 mg/dL, while nearly 20 percent had “high” levels exceeding 100 and as high as 130.

Patients were followed for an average of 1.6 years, and during that time more than 9,000 either died or faced a serious cardiac event, including heart attack, stroke, chest pain (angina), heart bypass surgery or surgery to unblock arteries (angioplasty).

The researchers determined that the risk for such events was significantly lower among patients with moderate LDL levels, compared to patients with high LDL levels.

However, driving LDL levels down into the 70 mg/dL range did not translate into any further drop in risk, the study found.

The findings were published in the June 20 online edition of JAMA Internal Medicine.

Dr. Rita Redberg, who co-wrote an accompanying editorial, said the findings have “important implications.”

“Statin side effects — such as muscle pains, fatigue, memory loss and diabetes — increase with increasing statin doses,” noted Redberg, a cardiologist at the UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco.

“[So] yes, I think these findings suggest a major shift away from our current assumptions of ‘lower is better’ for LDL lowering in patients with known heart disease,” added Redberg, who is also the editor-in-chief of JAMA Internal Medicine.

“It is important not to assume that more is better,” she said.

More information

There’s more on heart disease at the American Heart Association.

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These Fake Magazine Covers About Anxiety Are So Relatable

@crayonelyse/twitter

“Quiz: Why did you do that? What the hell were you thinking?” That’s a fake cover line on our new favorite fake publication, Anxiety: The Magazine. Over the last few weeks, Twitter user @crayonelyse has been sharing magazine covers she’s designed to show just how relatable anxious thoughts can be.

Her headlines tackle everything from social anxiety (“Jessie From Work: Friend, Confidante, But Does She Secretly Hate You?”) to social comparisons (“Shouldn’t you be moisturizing? Megan moisturizes”) to body insecurities (“Fifteen adorable swimsuit trends that would make your body look like a bag of sausages!”).

Some of the lines may feel so familiar they’ll make you laugh, and that’s the point: “I hope that laughing at the absurdity of something painful like anxiety helps make it easier to handle,”@crayonelyse, a PhD student who goes by Crayon, said in an interview with Refinery 29. “I draw inspiration from my job, my friends, current events—all of which are things that I spend a lot of time worrying about.” In another interview, with Attn:, Crayon explained that looking at her anxious thoughts “from the outside,” reminds her that “these thoughts aren’t reality, or at least, they don’t have to be.”

But the viral covers are also comforting because they confirm that anxiety is quite common. Indeed, the National Institutes of Health estimates that 18% of adults in the United States suffer from anxiety disorders.  So no, you’re not the only person who beats herself up over little things (such as, say, not drinking enough water). Below, check out the four covers @crayonelyse has put out so far.

RELATED: 12 Signs You May Have an Anxiety Disorder

ISSUE 1: http://pic.twitter.com/t0b4RA0vQw

— Crayon Elyse (@crayonelyse) May 27, 2016

ISSUE 2: http://pic.twitter.com/Wnk5vZQ32A

— Crayon Elyse (@crayonelyse) June 3, 2016

ISSUE 3 (SPECIAL BIRTHDAY EDITION): http://pic.twitter.com/U4iq2xGP1F

— Crayon Elyse (@crayonelyse) June 13, 2016

RELATED: 19 Natural Remedies for Anxiety

ISSUE 4 (GRAD SCHOOL PANIC): http://pic.twitter.com/1nmsCLyXmF

— Crayon Elyse (@crayonelyse) June 17, 2016

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Poor Sleep May Worsen Thinking Problems in MS Patients

MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Researchers report a link between sleep apnea and thinking problems in people suffering from multiple sclerosis.

“Since obstructive sleep apnea is a treatable condition that is also commonly seen in MS, we wondered, ‘What if some of the thinking and processing difficulties that MS patients experience do not stem directly from the MS itself, but from the effects of sleep apnea or other sleep problems?'” said study co-first author Dr. Tiffany Braley in a University of Michigan news release. Braley is an assistant professor of neurology at the university.

The study included 38 MS patients who underwent thinking and memory tests and were also assessed for sleep apnea. The results showed that 33 of them had the disorder, in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep.

Not only that, but “multiple measures of sleep apnea severity directly correlated with poorer performance on several [thinking] tests,” said study co-first author Anna Kratz, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the university.

“In particular, problems with attention and multiple aspects of memory, including memory for words and images and working memory, which plays a role in problem-solving and decision-making, were all associated with poorer sleep,” Kratz explained.

Apnea severity was associated with 11 percent to 23 percent of variation in the participants’ cognitive test performance, although the study could not prove that sleep apnea caused thinking deficits.

“Current MS treatments can prevent further neurological damage, but do little to help existing MS symptoms and damage,” said Braley.

But diagnosing and treating conditions like sleep apnea could improve thinking abilities in these patients, she added.

Dr. Neeraj Kaplish, medical director of the University of Michigan Sleep Laboratories, said, “We hope neurologists will ask their patients with MS about sleep, and the patient should be encouraged to openly discuss sleep concerns with their neurologist.”

The study was published recently in the journal Sleep.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more on multiple sclerosis.

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Experimental Genital Herpes Drug Shows Promise

MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — An experimental immune-boosting treatment for genital herpes shows promise, researchers report.

The drug, called GEN-003, may reduce both virus activity and the number of days with recurrent herpes in patients. The treatment is given in a series of three injections and appears to last for up to one year, the investigators said.

The researchers tested the vaccine on 310 people with a history of chronic, recurrent genital herpes. The findings were to be presented Monday at an American Society for Microbiology meeting in Boston. Research presented at meetings is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The study was funded by Genocea Biosciences, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company that makes the drug.

“GEN-003 is believed to work through a different pathway from most vaccines by recruiting T-cells, which are critical to controlling chronic infections such as herpes,” study author Dr. Kenneth Fife said in a society news release. Fife is a professor of medicine at Indiana University in Bloomington.

The vaccine also stimulates antibodies against the virus, he explained.

“The importance of these clinical findings is that it represents a new approach to treatment, and may provide a new option for patients suffering from chronic, recurrent genital herpes,” Fife said.

Genital herpes is common in the United States, affecting about one out of every six people aged 14 to 49 years. Current treatments for the sexually transmitted disease consist of antiviral medications. There is no cure for herpes, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

“GEN-003 is expected to be tested in combination with antiviral medications to potentially provide a level of relief not currently achievable,” Fife said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has more on genital herpes.

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Can Drugmakers Buy Doctors’ Loyalty With Cheap Meals?

By Karen Pallarito
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Doctors who accept free meals from drug companies are more likely to prescribe the brand-name drugs those companies sell, a new study suggests.

Physicians who received just one free meal, valued at less than $20 on average, were up to two times more likely to prescribe a promoted brand-name drug than a cheaper generic alternative, compared with doctors who did not accept a meal, the study found.

Doctors who received multiple meals were up to three times more likely to prescribe these drugs.

“To my surprise, tiny, tiny payments are associated with big differences in prescribing,” said study author Colette DeJong, a research fellow at University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) Center for Healthcare Value.

Additional meals and pricier fare were linked with even higher prescribing rates of the promoted drug.

“So whether you get zero, one, two, three or four meals has a step-wise increase in the prescribing of the brand-name drug that’s being promoted, and that has huge implications for Medicare and huge implications for patients,” said DeJong.

Marketing guidelines established by the American Medical Association and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) allow meals and gifts to doctors worth up to $100.

Most of the meals in the study were of low value. “It’s more like the pizza in the doctor’s office than the formal dinner out,” DeJong noted.

That’s important, noted senior study author Dr. Adams Dudley, director of UCSF’s Center for Healthcare Value. It’s not the value of the gift driving doctors’ prescribing patterns; it’s “feeling like you owe the drug rep something,” he said.

Most Medicare beneficiaries are in prescription drug plans where the median copay is $1 for generics and $40 to $80 for brand-name drugs, DeJong noted.

“You can imagine for a senior on 10 or 20 medicines, that’s a huge cost every month,” she observed.

However, the study did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. It may be that doctors attend industry events where information is provided on drugs they already prefer, the authors noted.

Dr. David Grande, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, in Philadelphia, thinks that’s unlikely.

“These findings provide even more support to do away with gifts altogether,” he said.

But PhRMA spokeswoman Holly Campbell took issue with the study.

“This study cherry-picks physician prescribing data for a subset of medicines to advance a false narrative,” she said in a statement.

Drug manufacturers routinely engage with doctors to share drug safety and efficacy information, new indications for approved medicines and potential side effects, Campbell noted.

What’s more, physicians’ prescribing patterns are greatly influenced by their clinical knowledge and experience as well patients’ individual needs, she added.

For the study, UCSF researchers linked information from two federal databases. One includes prescribing data for physicians in Medicare Part D (the prescription drug program). The other captures the value of food and beverages that drug makers provide to doctors.

The team identified the most-prescribed brand-name drugs in each of four common drug classes in 2013. These included Forest Laboratories’ beta blocker Bystolic (nebivolol) and Daiichi Sankyo’s ACE inhibitor Benicar (olmesartan medoxomil) — both for heart conditions, as well as AstraZeneca’s cholesterol-lowering statin drug Crestor (rosuvastatin calcium) and Pfizer’s antidepressant Pristiq (desvenlafaxine succinate).

None of the drugs in the study has an identical generic alternative. That was by design. Pharmacists often swap a brand-name drug for its generic equivalent, the researchers explained. Instead, the team picked popular brands within drug classes that have “great generic options,” DeJong said.

On many Medicare Part D plans, these drugs are “non-preferred,” she added. That means seniors pay more out-of-pocket than they would for generics or “preferred” brand-name drugs.

The study found nearly 280,000 physicians received roughly 63,500 payments totaling $1.4 million related to the four brand-name drugs. Ninety-five percent of payments were for meals, with an average cost of less than $20.

About 156,000 of those doctors wrote more than 20 prescriptions in at least one of the four categories.

Even after adjusting for other factors like prescribing volume, doctors who received a single meal were more likely to prescribe Crestor over other statins, Bystolic over other beta blockers, Benicar over other ACE inhibitors and Pristiq over other antidepressants.

The study was published June 20 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Payments for food and beverages provided to doctors totaled $224.5 million in 2014, JAMA Internal Medicine Editor-at-large Dr. Robert Steinbrook noted in an accompanying editorial.

“If drug and device manufacturers were to stop sending money to physicians for promotional speaking, meals and other activities without clear medical justification and invest more in independent bona fide research on safety, effectiveness, and affordability, our patients and the health care system would be better off,” Steinbrook concluded.

More information

To look up the value of meals your doctor received from drug representatives, go to the government website Open Payments.

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