Around a third of researchers are not disclosing their financial conflicts of interest despite the enormous pressure from medical journals for transparency in clinical trials.

Some researchers get speaking fees, others receive 'research grants' and others hold shares in the drug company whose drug they are reviewing, but which they are not revealing in their research that is presented as being independent.

Doctors who are exposed to techniques such as 'nudges' triple the number of prescriptions they write out, a new study has discovered.

Nudges and other techniques from the world of behavioural science are being built into software systems that doctors access when they are treating patients. Two common 'nudges' are reminders at the point when the doctor decides on the next steps and later when their prescribing levels are compared to those of other doctors.

The techniques are tripling the number of prescriptions being written, say researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine.

Gabapentinoids—which include gabapentin and pregabalin—are licensed as anti-seizure and nerve pain medications, but around 95 percent of prescriptions are 'off-label', meaning they are given to treat other health problems, such as migraine and fibromyalgia.

Around 35 per cent of research studies that investigate the safety and effectiveness of drugs and surgery are not properly reporting on side effects and adverse reactions.

A prescribing error is often responsible for the death of an elderly patient and those who suffer a serious reaction will be admitted to hospital at least three times before they recover, a new study has discovered.

Around half of older patients die after they were given a wrong drug or weren't given the drug they needed, say researchers at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in Scotland.

They analysed the records of 259 patients—with an average age of 77—who had been discharged from hospital. They were given a total of 2,411 medications, which means many had nine or more prescriptions, and 59 per cent were given 'inappropriate medications', such as a wrong drug, and nearly 70 per cent weren't given the drug they were supposed to have.

The drugs interfere with 'first-line' immune cells—known as neutrophils—and they also weaken the intestinal barrier which stops invading bugs. As a result, we're much more susceptible to 'severe infection', said Koji Watanabe from the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Gut bacteria act as a first-line defence system for the lungs—and it's the lining of the lungs, and not the immune system as everyone assumed, that receive signals from the bacteria.

This is because antibiotics destroy the 'good' bacteria in the gut that protect against infections and inflammation, and inflammation is the key to many chronic diseases, from arthritis, heart problems and cancer.

Although medicine accepts that over-use of antibiotics leads to resistance and 'super bugs', it can also be the gateway drug to most of the chronic diseases that afflict the West.

People taking the drugs for two months or longer were 32 per cent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, say researchers who reviewed a study involving around 36,500 women.

The drugs—and mainly the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants—lower "the emotional impact of negative events", say researchers from the University of Vienna.

Many of the body's organs, including the heart, kidneys, lungs and liver, depend on serotonin, a chemical that the drugs block to treat depression.

A new study into chloroquine was stopped suddenly after two patients died from an irregular heart rate, known as ventricular tachycardia. Researchers from Brazil had planned on a major trial involving 440 people infected with COVID-19, but started to see very worrying reactions to high doses of the drug among the first 81 patients who were being tested.

Former House speaker Raul Ryan received $222,070 in drug company donations, with most of it being paid by drug giant Merck, and Democrat presidential hopeful Beta O'Rourke was given $171,255, according to Open Secrets, which has ranked the 20 members of the House and Senate who received the most money from the drugs industry during the 2017-18 election cycle. In all, the pharmaceutical industry paid out more than $100m to Congress and presidential hopefuls.

In one example, governments were hoodwinked into stockpiling Tamiflu during the swine flu scare of 2009—but hadn't seen unpublished studies that found it wasn't effective. Around 80 per cent of the studies into the drug—that showed it didn't prevent complications after someone contracted flu—were either never published or hadn't been independently reviewed first.

WebMD, RxList, MedicineNet and Medscape are the latest to forge ever-closer ties to the pharmaceutical industry after they were purchased by private investment firm KKR (Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co). The takeover will be finalised by the end of this year.

The greatest risk is when several different types of the drugs, known as antihypertensives, are taken in combination, and, in particular, the drugs that regulate the hormone, renin, which affects blood pressure levels.

People who are taking an ACE inhibitor or an ARB drug for heart problems should stay at home and not meet up with people, say researchers from Louisiana State University.

Dr Malcolm Kendrick, a UK GP, estimates that people taking one of the drugs are four times more likely to die from the virus.

Calcium-channel blockers are antihypertensives—they keep high blood pressure under control—that also raise the risk of diverticulosis, a bowel problem that causes small bulges or pouches in the intestine. Left untreated, it can lead to diverticulitis, when the pouches become inflamed.