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Health Check: 14/12/2011

14/12/2011

BBC World Service - Health Check, 14/12/2011

How a British man tested a new painkiller on himself – which is 50 years old this week

How a British man tested a new painkiller on himself – which is 50 years old this week. Will repeal of leprosy in Bangladesh reduce stigma? Bi-polar disorder often misdiagnosed as depression

WILL REPEAL OF LEPROSY IN BANGLADESH REDUCE STIGMA?

A century-old law forbidding leprosy patients from mixing with the rest of society has been repealed in Bangladesh. 

So how much of an impact will it have on the stigma associated with the disease? 

Even today someone somewhere in the world is diagnosed with leprosy every two minutes. 

The curable disease is far less contagious than was previously thought – but discrimination still exists, preventing many from coming forward for treatment when they first notice symptoms. 

Sara Nancollas  from the charity Lepra describes the scale of the problem in Bangladesh.

BI-POLAR DISORDER OFTEN MISDIAGNOSED AS DEPRESSION

A study in Taiwan - to be published in next month's edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry - suggests that when people with depression have fruitlessly tried medication after medication some of them could in fact have bipolar disorder.

This is a condition characterised by severe mood swings with highs as well as periods of depression. But patients don’t often talk to their doctors about these episodes. 

For one woman, Zoe, it took more than a decade before she had the right diagnosis.  She finally realised what was wrong when she saw a celebrity with bi-polar disorder on a TV programme. 

A friend commented that she was just like her. In an attempt to reduce misdiagnosis, a new pilot project is starting in Leicester in Britain to screen people for bipolar disorder. 

The psychiatrist running the scheme is Dr Nick Stafford. 

THE MAN BEHIND IBUPROFEN

It’s the fiftieth birthday of one of the world’s most popular painkillers - ibuprofen. 

Pharmacologist Dr Stewart Adams discovered it in 1961, when he worked in the research department of The Boots Pure Drug Company in the British city of Nottingham.  

He’s now 92 and reporter Angela Robson has been to meet him.

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