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Parents of prescription overdose victims plead with legislators

By Lisa Girion and Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO — After hearing emotional testimony from parents whose children died of drug overdoses, lawmakers in Sacramento called Monday for the Medical Board of California to mine a statewide database of prescriptions to help identify doctors who recklessly prescribe narcotics.

Child born with HIV is 'functionally cured'

By Eryn Brown and Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times

For the first time, doctors are reporting that a child born with HIV and put on an unusually aggressive treatment regimen has been functionally cured of the infection.

Anti-HIV drug effort in South Africa yields dramatic results

By Monte Morin, Los Angeles Times

An intensive campaign to combat HIV/AIDS with costly antiretroviral drugs in rural South Africa has increased life expectancy by more than 11 years and significantly reduced the risk of infection for healthy individuals, according to new research.

Booster Shots

Kids' menus are not healthy, nutrition group says

Buffalo Trace Distillery recalls sauces over allergen mislabling

Do companies that refuse to hire smokers help them or harm them?

More on Medicine

Doctors list overused medical treatments

By Noam N. Levey, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Nearly 100 medical procedures, tests and therapies are overused and often unnecessary, a coalition of leading medical...

5 Questions: Charlie Lustman, not silent, not a victim

By Jessica P. Ogilvie

When Charlie Lustman, who ran the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax Avenue until it closed in June 2006, was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer...

Stem cell agency not doing enough to avoid conflict of interest

By Michael Hiltzik

Compromise, defined as the art of getting part of a loaf when the whole loaf is out of reach, comes in many forms. But surely the...

Reckless doctors go unchecked

Lisa Girion and Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times

A database that could identify prolific prescribers and prevent overdose deaths is readily available, but California officials say they lack...

Rogue pharmacists feed addiction

By Scott Glover, Lisa Girion and Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times

Some provide massive amounts of painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs to addicts and dealers, according to state records, regulators and law...

The doctor's in, on Twitter

By Karen Ravn

Twitter. A popular online social network? Yes. A vital tool for medical research? Maybe.

Reckless prescribing, lost lives

The Medical Board of California is often slow to act when investigating doctors suspected of abusing their prescription pads - even when...

Times investigation: Legal drugs, deadly outcomes

By Scott Glover and Lisa Girion

Prescription overdoses kill more people than heroin and cocaine. An L.A. Times review of coroners’ records finds that drugs prescribed...

U.S. investigating CVS prescription refills

By David Lazarus

The U.S. Justice Department's civil fraud division is investigating claims that CVS Caremark wrongly refilled prescriptions and billed...

Research firm reaped stem cell funds despite panel's advice

By Michael Hiltzik

StemCells Inc. has a history not much different from those of dozens, even hundreds, of biotech companies all around California.

On the frontier of medical pot to treat boy's epilepsy

By Lee Romney, Los Angeles Times

MODESTO —Topamax. Depakote. Phenobarbital. The list goes on. Before Jayden David turned 5, he had tried a dozen powerful medications...

Truvada pill urged for AIDS prevention after promising studies

By Monte Morin, Los Angeles Times

As the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationweighs approval of a radical new method of AIDS prevention — a prescription pill taken once...

TV not always a healthy channel for advice

By Chris Woolston, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Your family doctor doesn't work with a teleprompter. And there wasn't a live studio audience the last time you put on a hospital gown...

Treating HIV and preventing it at the same time

By Erin Loury, Los Angeles Times

Treatment drugs can do more than improve the health of people with HIV: If administered early, medications can also reduce the spread of the...

FDA approves lorcaserin, first weight-loss drug since 1999

By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times

The Food and Drug Administration has approved marketing of the weight-loss drug lorcaserin, the first prescription anti-obesity medication...

Study identifies genes linked to post-traumatic stress disorder