Hi Philipkd,
One of the always-present questions in the practice of evidence-based
medicine, or "EBM" as it is often called, is when a link is a link.
That is, when can one conclusively say that something has been "shown"
to "cause" something else? I want to preface this clarification with
that caution because I'm not sure anyone can really answer your
question with certainty.
That said, I did find an article in the May 2002 issue of the American
Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (v. 185 issue 5 Supplement, pp.
S262-S266) titled "Medical, Social, and Legal Implications of Treating
Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy" by R.Brent. Dr. Brent feels rather
strongly that the media hype over Bendectin was based on "junk
science" and that there is no connection between this once-popular
drug and birth defects:
"Bendectin is probably the most studied medication with regard to its
reproductive effects, and the studies clearly demonstrate that
therapeutic doses of Bendectin have no measurable reproductive risks
to the mother or the fetus. In spite of Bendectin's record of safety,
numerous nonmeritorious congenital malformation lawsuits were filed
and went to trial, and that junk science was presented at these
trials. The Bendectin era focused our attention on the area of
nonmeritorious litigation and junk science, which could have an effect
on any new or less well-studied therapies, because such a high
percentage of women are treated for NVP. Because 3% of the offspring
will be affected with birth defects, the potential for litigation is
immense."
The article cited below by KevinMD has some good data, but it focuses
on the pediatric use of Bendectin in children (it was the subject of
several studies in the late 1970s and early 1980s that tested its
effect on children who already had learning disabilities). Since this
is a post-partum study it would not apply to your case.
I found these articles in the PubMed version of MEDLINE
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi), which anyone can search
for free. My search looked like this: "bendectin"[substance name] OR
"pyridoxine"[MESH]OR "doxylamine"[MESH]. I combined this search with
one for "learning disorders"[MESH]. The [MESH] notation means that
the term is in the controlled vocabulary system of MEDLINE. The
database uses specific terms for diseases, conditions, systems, drugs,
etc. in an effort to keep confusion to a minimum. Note that searching
for "learning disabilities" does not find the best information on the
topic, since MEDLINE uses the MESH term "learning disorders" for this
term.
Another place I always go for information on diseases and drugs is the
MEDLINEplus website from the National Library of Medicine
(http://medlineplus.gov). When I searched this site for Bendectin I
was directed to the March of Dimes' website, where I found the
following site: http://www.marchofdimes.com/search/MsmGo.exe?grab_id=71048750&extra_arg=&page_id=577&host_id=1&query=bendectin&hiword=BENDECTIN+.
This factsheet for physicians supports Dr. Brent's conclusions in the
paper cited above.
As with any other medical question I answer either through GA or at
the health sciences library where I work "for real," I would strongly
counsel you to speak to your doctor or your brother's doctor before
making a final decision on this or any other medical issue.
As for tips on dealing with learning disabilities and treatments,
there aren't any that deal specifically with reversing the effects of
this particular drug (this makes sense, since there isn't evidence
that there ARE effects of this drug). However, you might find useful
information from the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINEplus
website: http://medlineplus.gov. They have extensive information
available about learning disorders at:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/learningdisorders.html. Without
knowing details of your brother's diagnosis I can't direct you to a
particular section of the learning disorders section, but I think it
will give you more than enough information to take to your doctor for
discussion.
Good luck, and I wish you all the best.
librariankt |
