The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Zoloft, an antidepressant drug made by Pfizer, for acute and long-term treatment of social anxiety disorder, said the company.
In clinical trials involving more than 600 patients, Zoloft proved effective in reducing the anxiety, fear and avoidance behaviors experienced by people with social anxiety disorder, also known as a […]

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirmed what psychiatrists have assumed - that patients who recovered from depression with drug treatment were less likely to avoid recurrences if they took the drug for two years instead of tapering off after a few months.
The subjects of the study had previously suffered […]

Federal Prosecutor John P. MacCoon told jurors that corporate greed caused Tyson Foods, the nation’s largest meat producer and processor, to conspire to suppress its workers’ wages by smuggling illegal immigrants from Mexico to work in the company’s chicken plants in the United States. Tyson and six employees were indicted in December 2001 in the […]

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the use of Zoloft, an antidepressant drug made by Pfizer, for post-traumatic stress. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric condition that affects millions of people who experience car accidents, sexual assaults, and other horrifying incidents. It is estimated that about 7 percent of Americans will suffer […]

The Food and Drug Administration announced that Serevent, a widely used asthma medicine made by GlaxoSmithKline, could increase the risk of a serious or fatal asthma attack in a few people who use it. According to a recent study, the risk appears to be greatest in African Americans and patients who are not also taking […]

The Food and Drug Administration released a warning stating that Purdue Pharma, the maker of the controversial painkiller OxyContin, placed ads in The Journal of the American Medical Association that “grossly overstate” the drug’s safety. The body of the two ads does not mention that OxyContin can cause fatal side effects or discuss its potential […]

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates has ordered Verizon to turn over the identity of an Internet subscriber who the Recording Industry Association of America said had been making available unauthorized copies of several hundred songs. The RIAA invoked a legal short cut that that provides copyright holders the ability to circumvent the normal judicial […]

Seven former traders and executives of Datek Online, including former chief executive Jeffrey A. Citron and Sheldon Maschler, the former chief trader, agreed to pay $70 million in fines for what regulators called illegal trading and fraudulent bookkeeping. The Securities and Exchange Commission called it one the largest securities fraud settlements ever. The government said […]

MIAMI — Judge Leslie B. Rothenberg granted a new trial in the case of former American Airlines flight attendant Suzette Janoff, who sued Philip Morris, Lorillard Tobacco, R.J. Reynolds and Brown & Williamson, claiming that secondhand smoke she inhaled while working aboard airliners caused her chronic sinusitis. Previous case resulted in a tobacco victory. Judge […]

Microsoft has agreed to pay up to $1.1 billion to settle class action lawsuits brought by California residents who claim the company abused its market position and overcharged for software. Microsoft admitted no wrongdoing under the settlement, and still faces smaller suits in other states. The settlement will be paid in the form of vouchers […]