Saturday, October 29, 2016

Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children.

Saint Louis, Catherine. "Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children." New York
Times. N.p., 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/health/migraines-drugs-children.html>.

“Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children”
Sometimes, drugs used for adults do not help for the needs of children. The two most common frequently used drugs to prevent migraines in children are “more effective than a sugar spill”. Recently there has been a trial but it was stopped early since researchers said that the evidence was clear and that the antidepressant and epilepsy drug topiramate had been shown to prevent migraines in adults. Scott Powers, the lead author of the study and the director of the headache center at cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center said, “The medication did not perform as well as we thought it would, and the placebo performed better than you would think”. A migraine is an illness in the brain identified as major headache pain that can have symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and noise. This is common in children. The aim of this research was to find out which drug was more effective at reducing the number of headache days and which one helped children to stop missing school or social activities. Some of these drugs would prevent side effects on children as well. One child when taking the drug “topiramate” attempted suicide. Three others taking “amitriptyline” had mood changes and another told his mother he wanted to hurt himself. This lead to Dr. Powers and his colleagues questioning whether the benefits of the drugs outweighed its risks. They have data in adults that is effective but less convincing data in children and adolescents. Last year, a trial published discovered that taking amitriptyline and learning coping skills in a cognitive behavioral therapy program would more effectively reduce headache days for those suffering between ages 10 to 16.
Headaches amongst children and adults is a very common thing. People suffer from them all of the time and it is not rare. The fact that they found out that certain migraine drugs for children only work on adults is very beneficial to society. All of this time, children could have been taking drugs to cope with their symptoms and not understand why it was not working. This could help advance children’s medicine. The trial that they did was very smart. Luckily, through this, they realized that some of these drugs had bad side effects and could risk a child’s life and have affect on their brain and their emotions creating mood sings and desires for suicide. Today, because of this children in the near future could have pain killers that would work well for them and not only for adults. This could also help change society’s medical creations on pain killers and help people advance it.
I thought that the author did a very good job writing this article. I liked how she incorporate statistics and data as well as quotes from the doctors who were working on this trial. I think that the author could have incorporated more quotes from those researching the different drugs and how to improve them and to see if there were different point of view on this research. I think that some of the words that she used were a little confusing as well and could have defined them but overall I think that this was a very interesting article.

6 comments:

  1. Saint Louis, Catherine. "Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children." New York Times. N.p., 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.


    Margaux did a great job on her review of “Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children” by Catherine Saint Louis. I particularly enjoyed Margaux’s extensive use of quotations. By including quotes from men like Scott Powers, the lead author of the study and the director of the headache center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Margaux provided an authority on the matter as well as an opinion. Another thing Margaux did well on was her definition of key terms. For example, Margaux defined essential words such as Migraines and indicated that it is an illness in the brain identified as major headache pain that can have symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and noise. These definitions helped clarify her review and allowed most anyone to understand it. A final aspect in which Margaux prevailed was her analysis and opinion of the article. Instead of simply praised the article Margaux dug deeper and mention that the article could improve by “incorporating more quotes from those researching the different drugs and how to improve them and to see if there were different points of view on this research.”
    However, Margaux did have two areas of her review in which she could improve. Primarily, I would recommend that Margaux be more clear in her use of language in her review and look out for typos. For example, she stated that “the two most common frequently used drugs to prevent migraines in children are ‘more effective than a sugar pill.’ This phrase confused me because Margaux did not indicate what she meant by “more effective than a sugar pill.” In fact, it appears Margaux may have even made a typo that is detrimental to her argument by not putting the word not after are. By doing this her point that some drugs do little for kids except the effects of sugar consumption would have been strengthened. Additionally, she made typos such as saying “lead” instead of “led” which simply indicates Margaux should proofread her review more closely. Another aspect Margaux could work on is in her overall construction of her review. Although a complex topic the goal of a review is to break any such topic down into understandable terms. However, Margaux simply took many quotes along with the “fancy” language and her review as a result was difficult to comprehend.
    Overall, Margaux did a brilliant job of creating a well-written piece that emphasizes how medicines an act so differently for our alignments depending on our age. I personally am interested in and fascinated by medicine. By reading this review Margaux has shed light on a fascinating part of research. I have always wondered why medicines between children and adults differ and now with help from Margaux;s review I can begin to understand why.

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  2. Saint Louis, Catherine. "Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children." New York Times. N.p., 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016. .


    Margaux’s review of Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children was a very interesting review. First of all, it really helped that she defined what migraines actually are. Everyone kind of knows what they are but I don’t think a lot of people actually really know their definition. In addition, the fact that she stated a scientist’s name and his opinion on this topic, like Scott Powers, who is the lead author of the study and the director of the headache center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, aided me in understanding this topic better and gave me some additional information about it. Furthermore, Margaux did a really good job on thoroughly explaining different trials and which drugs were used. For instance, she stated that a trial was published saying that taking amitriptyline and learning coping skills in a cognitive behavioral therapy program would more effectively reduce headache days for children between ages 10 to 16. By being very through in her review, Margaux showed that she knew what she was talking about, which in turn helped me created my own opinion on this topic.
    Although this review was well written, one way it could have been made better is that Margaux could have reread her review as some sentences did not make sense and her ideas were a bit all over the place. So by rereading her review, she could have avoided this problem. Moreover, she stated in her last paragraph that the author had put in statistics into her article. I would have liked to see some of these statistics in Margaux’s review. By putting in some of these statistics, Margaux could have made her review even more detailed.
    Overall, this review was captivating and thorough. I had never heard about this problem of drugs that can work for adults but not for children, so I was intrigued when I read Margaux’s review. Thus, learning about this was very enlightening and taught me many new things. Reading this review made me realize that we don’t know a lot about many of the drugs we are creating and some of them could have terrible side effects. This review really got me to think more about the subject of drugs and what emergent properties they can have.

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  3. I read Margaux’ review of the article Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children. I enjoyed reading Margaux’ review for three reasons. She did a great job summarizing the article which definitely led to a great reading experience. The second thing that she did very well was that she included quotations from credible people, which helped to further prove her argument. The final thing that I thought she did well in her review was explaining each of the trials very well and their results. This, like the quotations, helped to further prove her argument. Although Margaux did a good job reviewing her article, but there were still some things that needed improvement. The first aspect that needed improvement was that she mentioned that the author of the article used statistics and if she included those in her review it would have helped her already good review. The second aspect that needed improvement was her grammar. In several cases she misused words and if she didn’t do that it would have made her review a lot better. Overall, Margaux did a good job writing her review. Reading her review opened my eyes to how medicines can have different effects on different ages of those taking it. I had known that this did happen, but reading her review made me a lot more knowledgeable on the topic.

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  4. Charlotte Prior
    Saint Louis, Catherine. "Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children." New YorkTimes. N.p., 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.


    .


    “Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children”


    I think Margaux did a good review of her current event article and I liked the topic that she chose. It was good that she chose and article about migraines because they are very common and an issue that a lot of people have to deal with. So the article is obviously relevant and important to society. She also did a good job explaining the topics of her article and giving a summary. Her words were also clear and concise and she didn't use any confusing language so that the reader can easily comprehend what she is saying. Something she could work on would be further explaining the effects the medicine had on the children, that would help the comprehension of the topic. Something else that is very small but there are a couple typos, they do not disrupt the flow of the review but it would be better without them. Before reading this I had no idea about the effects of these medicine and their issues with children and I also learned that migraines are more common than I thought. Overall, this was a good review and Margaux did a great job.




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  5. I read Margaux's review of the article "Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children”, by Catherine Saint Louis. Margaux had many aspects of her review that were well done. The first thing was that she summarized the article very well. The language she used was sophisticated, but easy to read. The next thing she did well was use quotations. It helped the reader better understand the article. She also defined certain terms in her review, like migraines, which also helped the reader understand the article better. The third thing she did well was explain how this trial is important for society and that it could help improve medicine. By making the drugs more beneficial for children, it would help many people.
    There were some areas that Margaux could have improved her review. One thing she could improve on is explaining why the medications are not good for children and saying what scientists think are good alternative medications. Also, she could have proofread her article a little more because I found some sentences confusing and there were some typos.
    Overall, Margaux's review of the article was very well done, I learned so much from this article. Migraines are common among children and adults, but it is scary to find out that some of the medicine is not helpful for children at all. Medicine could change in the future because of this trial and benefit many people. It is important to know that scientists continue to conduct trials in various areas to keep improving science.

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  6. Saint Louis, Catherine. "Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children." New York
    Times. N.p., 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.
    .


    I chose to read Margaux’s review of “Two Drugs For Adult Migraines May Not Help Children,” because the title of the article drew me in. Migraines and headaches are very common among people of all ages so this information is very important to everyone. First Margaux discussed how the most common migraine drugs are basically the same as taking a sugar pill. She then goes on to talk about a trial that was done recently in which researchers discovered that an antidepressant and epilepsy drug called topiramate, prevents migraines in adults. But, the goal of the research was actually to find out how to reduce the number of headache days and help children stop missing school and social events. Finally she discusses how the antidepressants actually made some kids suicidal or have mood swings.
    I think that Margaux did a very good job clearly explaining what the article stated and summarizing it in a concise way. I also think that she did a good job including important details to understanding the article such as what the symptoms of a migraine are. She could have improved her review by explaining the trial a little bit clearer, I was a little confused as to how the trial related to the article, because the article title says adult migraine drugs may not help children and the trial talked about how the antidepressant medication helped migraines in adults. This was a little confusing for the reader. Another thing I think that she could have done to improve her review is re-read and edit it before she submits it because there were a couple of spelling errors which could have been fixed with a quick read through.
    Overall I learned a lot of valuable information about migraines drugs and the effects that they can have on children, which definitely will make me more cautious in the future.

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