HULL, England -- Low-dose slow-release morphine sulfate reduces severity and frequency of chronic, intractable cough by 40%, researchers found here in a small study.

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands -- For patients with chronic pancreatitis, surgical drainage of the pancreatic duct was more effective than endoscopic drainage, and offered superior pain relief, according to a randomized trial.

BRISTOL, England -- Breast milk may be a fuel for high-octane social ambition, or so it seems.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- In the long run, smoking marijuana has many of the same effects as smoking cigarettes, such as coughing and wheezing, according to researchers here.

MILWAUKEE -- Despite increased Medicare coverage for colorectal cancer screening, women, nonwhites, and those with lower educational achievement and income were less likely to undergo colonoscopy, researchers reported.

NEW YORK -- The ideal timing for the use of platelet-inhibiting drugs for patients with acute coronary syndromes undergoing invasive treatment remains an open question after an international trial.

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. -- Reducing the body's stores of iron through phlebotomy does not appear to improve cardiovascular outcomes in patients with peripheral arterial disease, though some questions remain, researchers here said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Early surgery to relieve intracranial pressure after a malignant middle cerebral artery infarction cuts mortality in half without increasing the number of severely disabled survivors, researchers said here. But survivors may have a higher risk of moderate disabilities.

Seventeen years ago, "What's Your Diagnosis?" was launched as a monthly service in CONSULTANT. The feature was developed with Dr Schneiderman to emphasize the skills involved in physical diagnosis-a field in which he is a nationally recognized authority.

BOSTON -- A blizzard of words in a quintet of studies, and more, all released online today by the New England Journal of Medicine offered evidence that drug-eluting coronary stents seem safe when used as indicated, but the issue of high risk patients remains in question.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The intracranial Wingspan stent appears to be as safe for severe arterial stenosis in clinical practice as it was in the trials that led to its approval, researchers said here.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 12 -- Women in their 40s have a threefold greater risk for stillbirth at term than women in their mid-to-late 20s, researchers said here.

STANFORD, Calif. -- For reasons that are speculative at best, women who never smoked are more likely to get lung cancer than are men who never took up the habit, according to researchers here.

EDINBURGH, Scotland -- Rett Syndrome -- a relatively rare autism spectrum disorder -- may be reversible, if experiments in mice are borne out in humans.

LOS ANGELES -- Arthritis patients taking Arcoxia (etoricoxib), an investigational highly selective Cox-2 inhibitor, had significantly fewer uncomplicated upper gastrointestinal events, versus a traditional NSAID, but it was no better for more serious GI problems.

ST. LOUIS -- African-American women, compared with white women, have preterm babies more frequently and deliver prematurely at an earlier gestational age, found researchers here.

ANTWERP, Belgium -- For the first time, the unassailable proof that physicians can do harm by indiscriminate use of antibiotics has emerged from a randomized controlled trial.

SAN DIEGO -- High levels of vitamin D can significantly reduce the relative risks of breast and colorectal cancer, according to two meta-analyses reported separately by researchers here.

ATLANTA -- Autism spectrum disorders are much more common than previously thought, and could affect as many as one in 150 school-age children, CDC researchers reported. The prevalence was highest in New Jersey among 14 states surveyed.

BOSTON -- Nearly 90% of patients with advanced cancer said in a study that religion and spirituality were important to them, but 72% said their spiritual needs were met only minimally or not at all by the medical system.