Volunteers: use or abuse?*

Buoyancy Compensation: Use or Abuse

The modern scuba diver has become a slave of the buoyancy compensator. Throughout scuba diving history the diver has had to cope with variations in buoyancy due to suit compression and air usage. During the past five years scores of buoyancy compensation units have appeared on the market. Frequently manufacturers and instructors indicate that the buoyancy compensator is extremely useful for aid...

Carnitine and sports medicine: use or abuse?

Carnitine has important roles in skeletal muscle bioenergetics. Skeletal muscle carnitine deficiency is associated with profound impairment of muscle function. It has thus been natural to ask if carnitine supplementation can improve skeletal muscle function and athletic performance in healthy individuals. Oral carnitine doses of several grams cause no significant clinical toxicity, further enco...

Use or abuse of bioinformatic tools: a response to Samach.

In a recent paper, we described for the first time the effects of fruit on the expression of putative homologues of genes involved in flowering pathways. It was our aim to provide insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying alternate bearing in citrus. However, a bioinformatics-based critique of our and other related papers has been given by Samach in the preceding Viewpoint article in thi...

Corticosteroids in rheumatology: use, misuse or plain abuse?

Psychosocial interventions for benzodiazepine harmful use, abuse or dependence.

BACKGROUND Benzodiazepines (BZDs) have a sedative and hypnotic effect upon people. Short term use can be beneficial but long term BZD use is common, with several risks in addition to the potential for dependence in both opiate and non-opiate dependent patients. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for treating BZD harmful use, abuse or dependence compared to ...