More and more people without Icelandic medical insurance are said to be seeking medical assistance; including residents who have lived in the country for less than six months. Currently they pay ISK 8,800 (EUR 55) per hour, or fraction thereof, spent in an ambulance; but that figure will go up to ISK 35,000 (EUR 218) from Sunday. In addition to this they currently pay ISK 660 for every kilometre driven; but that figure will go up to ISK 2,000 in 2012 and 15 kilometres will be the minimum distance charged. That means that non-insured people will pay a minimum of ISK 65,000 for ambulance transport and insured residents of Iceland will pay ISK 5,500. As with travel to every country, it is advisable to have valid travel insurance which covers medical fees when visiting Iceland.

From 1st January insured individuals will pay ISK 5,300 in hospital admittance fees instead of the current ISK 5,000 and fees for seeing a specialist physician will go up from ISK 3,900 to ISK 4,200. Discount cards will be given to those who have already paid ISK 29,500 or more in hospital fees for the year.

The cost of going to see a general practitioner at a health centre will remain unchanged.

Prescription medicines will increase in cost by around five percent; meaning that asthma medication (for example) will go up from ISK 6,200 to ISK 6,500. Those whose medicine is paid for by the state will not be affected by the change.

Everyone who has been legally resident in Iceland for six months automatically becomes a member of the Icelandic social insurance system, regardless of nationality. This applies unless intergovernmental treaties say otherwise. More here.

The Jyllands-Posten newspaper claims the number of older people taking drugs for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has increased from 800 to 15,000 over the past 10 years, with many taking 20 pills or more per day.

The medication, usually known as Ritalin, is only supposed to be prescribed to children and young people who have trouble concentrating and behavioural difficulties. However, the report suggests that the Danish Medicines Agency (DMA) is concerned that doctors and psychiatrists are dishing out the drugs to anyone who requests them.

“I find it disturbing that so many adults need the behavioural medicine that ADHD pills in fact are,” DMA Medicines Approval Department Head Steffen Thirstrup told the newspaper. “Among adult users there is a danger of both abuse and onward sales with this amphetamine-like medicine as well as the fact that we do not know the long-term effects of the drugs in the pills,” he added.

“It is very difficult to understand why so many adults have to have ADHD pills,” General Practitioner Chairman Henrik Dibbern told Jyllands-Posten. “We need to investigate whether the numbers should just be allowed to grow,” he says.

On Saturday Helsinki District Court also allowed the seizure of Esa Laiho’s EUR 600,000 property so a search can be carried out.

The so-called pseudo doctor, who is suspected of aggravated forgery and aggravated fraud, has worked in geriatric care all across the country over the past decade. He could face up to four years behind bars if he is found guilty of the charges.

Laiho, who made no attempt to cover his face as he entered the court room, claims he studied at Ross University in the USA and received qualification papers from St Petersburg. Police inspector Hannu Mannikko, however, says the papers must be forged as doctors are not allowed to practice after just a few years of education.

The research, which medical daily Dagens Medicin describes as “rock solid, proven and tangible”, found that if a boy with an alcoholic father suffered a shortage of vitamin K during labour, was underweight at birth and had behavioural problems or ADHD as a child, he stands a high chance of becoming addicted to alcohol as an adult.

“It’s not something we think, we simply know it,” Dr Joachim Knop told Dagens Medicin. “The indicators are so certain and obvious that any experienced teacher with any knowledge of education could pick out one or two high-risk students after a week in the classroom.”

“If a child has the combination of an alcoholic father, a difficult birth, ADHD and behavioural problems, it might pay off to treat the ADHD with Ritalin in order to help the child,” Knop added. “I am not a fan of forcing medication on children and adolescents, but the alternative is that we ignore it until the problems develop in adulthood.”

The study was carried out at the University of Kansas in the US the Institute of Preventive Medicine in Copenhagen over a period of 33 years. Boys with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic fathers were tracked by the teams and interviewed every ten years.

(Photos not directly connected to the story. For illustration purposes only.)

A total of 92 people have already made claims to the Finnish Medical Insurance pool after they or their children became afflicted with the sleep disorder after taking the Pandemrix vaccine.

Each case will be investigated individually, so no compensation rate has yet been set. Costs for travel, medication and medical assistance incurred as a result of Pandemrix-induced narcolepsy can be redeemed under the scheme. Any loss of earnings incurred by the parents of a sick child could also been claimed back.

Finland’s Institute for Health and Welfare, as well as other recognised bodies across Europe, has supported research demonstrating the link between the vaccine and the onset of narcolepsy. Once the EUR 30 million compensation fund is exhausted, the government will take responsibility for the remainder of the payouts.

There is no evidence that the H1N1 virus itself would have caused narcolepsy, which sees afflicted people suffer from sudden and frequent daytime ‘sleep attacks’, but those who received the Pandemrix injection were found to have a higher genetic propensity for the disorder than the general population.

A compensation system is in the process of being established in Finland for some of the 100 youngsters who have reported contracting narcolepsy since receiving the vaccine. Similar studies on Pandemrix results have also turned up the same results in Norway, Sweden and France.

Ten people, including Funglesang, took ten times the recommended dose of Coffea Alfaplex last week, but lived to tell the tale.

“We’re risking our lives for science,” wrote Fuglesang in an opinion piece for Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet before the ‘suicide attempt’. “Either we die, and for the first time the effect of homeopathy will be proven, or we survive, in which case we expect Swedish politicians to rethink their stand on alternative medicine’s use in healthcare,” the piece continued.

The effort was supported by Vetenskap och Folkbildning (VoF), a non-profit organisation that works towards discrediting false science. Homeopathic medicine, which is widely used in Sweden, works on the principle that a remedy becomes stronger as it becomes more diluted with water. VoF believes there should be an outright ban on homeopathy, even though it is already illegal to treat some physical diseases, such as cancer, with the method.

“This is an important matter to debate, since the use of alternative medicine is so common in Sweden,” Dan Larhammar, Professor of Neuroscience at Uppsala University and active member of VoF, told The Local. “We hope the use of homeopathy will cease, seeing as how it’s pure humbug; and above all, the state and country councils should not stand behind such humbug,” he continued.

Statistics show that about 190,000 people used diazepam in 2010; more than 100,000 took prescription medication for insomnia, while an additional 70,000 took drugs designed specifically as a sleeping aid.

Benzodiazepines are the most common form of anxiety and insomnia drugs and are often prescribed to patients with high levels of stress, or those that feel consistently shy, bullied or unnecessarily anxious in everyday tasks. Experts say that they are not to be administered to patients for periods in excess of 12 weeks, though doctors commonly prescribe them for months and even years at a time, often leading to dependency.

According to the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health, such medication should only be used for a short time, as it poses, “a serious danger of physical and psychological dependence and abuse,” the Helsingin Sanomat reports.

In addition to dangerous addictive habits, abuse of the drugs can lead to exhaustion, memory problems and the overall slowing of cognitive abilities.

Talking to the Helsingin Sanomat, Turku Psychiatric Clinic’s professor Jarmo Hietala said, “We want to take issue with this long-term use. The cognitive damage caused by benzodiazepines is well known, but they are taken into consideration fairly little.”

The project is run by the Norwegian company PCI Biotech, in co-operation with the University of Iceland and the Icelandic chemistry company ArcticMass. The trials have been carried out on patients at University College Hospital in London. The cancer patient is given a so-called light-directing drug along with cancer medication.

“The light-directing drug is given shortly before the cancer medicine and then a light is shone onto the tumour,” says Mar Masson, an Icelandic professor involved in the project. The light directing drug increases the efficacy of the cancer drugs inside the tumour and reduces the drugs’ unwanted impact on the rest of the body.

“This treatment is especially suited to surface tumours. A good example is tongue tumours, which are difficult to treat surgically and often lead to the removal of the tongue; but with this procedure it is possible to administer cancer medication, activate it with light in the tumour and the tumour can disappear without harming the patient,” Masson explained to RUV.

11 long-term cancer patients took part in initial trials in the UK. All tumours that were treated disappeared and no major side effects were reported.

“If the tests planned for this year go well, this could be a recognised treatment on the market in just a few years,” the professor adds.

Although the heart is much bigger than the human equivalent – which usually weighs around 300 grams – it is hoped that the huge organ will help doctors and scientists at the hospital learn more about human coronary disease.

“It has certainly been a challenge because of its dimensions. One has to treat a heart this size rather differently than one would a human heart,” said heart surgeon Morten Smerup in an interview with national broadcaster DR.

The whale, which measured 17.5 metres, became stuck in Vejle Fjord in June. Despite freeing itself from the bottom on a few occasions, it eventually died on June 20. Experts agreed to extract the heart and transport it to Skejby Hospital where it will be kept in conserving fluid, reports the Copenhagen Post.