Francisco López-Muñoz

A meta-analysis published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry showed that psychedelic-assisted therapy is no more effective against depression than traditional antidepressants in clinical trials. The research found differences in the use of double-blind methods—that is, when neither the participants nor the researchers know which treatment each group is receiving—which minimises subjective influences on the results. Double-blinding made a difference in the case of traditional drugs, but not in the case of psychedelics, confirming that these trials are, in practice, always open-label.

Several recent studies had concluded that the risk of gastric cancer doubled with the use of drugs such as omeprazole – proton pump inhibitors. A new study published in The BMJ states that there is no association between prolonged use of these drugs and the risk of gastric adenocarcinoma. The research used prospective data from registries in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden between 1994 and 2020. The study included more than 17,000 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma (other than cardia cancer) who had been exposed to these drugs for more than one year.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) safety committee (PRAC) has recommended a change to the information on codeine-ibuprofen combination medicines to include "a warning about serious harm, including death, especially when taken for prolonged periods at higher than recommended doses". The PRAC reviewed several cases of renal, gastrointestinal and metabolic toxicity that had been reported in association with cases of abuse and dependence on these drugs.

A study published today in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry claims that some drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may also help with some symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.