Daily digest September 17 2015

Toddler with type 2 diabetes raises concern

The case of a three-year-old girl in the United States who developed type 2 diabetes has raised fresh concerns about diet in childhood.

The BBC reports that the child weighed 35kg (five-and-a-half stone) when she saw specialists. Experts believe an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise played a large part in her condition, which is more commonly seen in older people.

In the UK only 2% of children with diabetes have type 2, and the youngest patients on record are aged between five and nine.

The case is being discussed at this month's annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

Read more on the BBC News website

NHS failed to collect data on cancer drugs

The NHS has spent almost £1 billion giving 74,000 cancer patients drugs rejected by the health watchdog, but it does not know if the drugs have extended the patients' lives, the National Audit Office has said.

In a new report, the office described the failure of the NHS and Department of Health to collect data on the patient outcomes resulting from the Cancer Drugs Fund as a major weakness.

As reported in The Guardian, the Labour MP who chairs the public accounts committee, Meg Hillier, said the failure to ensure data collection 'makes no sense’ and made it impossible to judge if the scheme had succeeded in extending patients’ survival.

Read more on the Guardian website

Drugs giant 'published flawed study' to promote antidepressants, say researchers

New research claims a global drugs company published a flawed study that led to millions of children being prescribed potentially dangerous pills.

A study in the British Medical Journal claims GlaxoSmithKline misled doctors and the public by claiming an antidepressant was safe and effective, even though there was no evidence to support this.

The Mail Online reports that the firm published a trial in 2001 claiming that paroxetine – known as Paxil or Seroxat – was ‘generally well tolerated’ and helped cure depression in children and adolescents. Two million young people were prescribed the pill the following year in the United States alone.

Australian researchers say that the drug was no more effective than a placebo and that the increased risk of harm was ‘clinically significant’.

Read more on the Mail Online