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 Last Modified Friday, May 17, 2013


Research Into Meniere's Disease
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Table of Contents

 
There is Lots of Ongoing Research on Meniere's Disease  
(Rumors to the contrary are totally unfounded.)

Some misinformed patients have taken to criticizing the medical community for a lack of research done on Meniere's Disease, attributing this supposed lack of research to the lack of a celebrity spokesperson for Meniere's Disease and the belief that Meniere's Disease is an orphan disease that attracts little attention or sympathy.  This is completely untrue, and these misinformed patients have apparently never researched the world's largest depository of medical research, PubMed, at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).  In fact, there is much ongoing research on Meniere's Disease.  Here is the proof:

  • 151 medical journal articles concerning Meniere's Disease were added to PubMed in a recent year. 
    • On May 19, 2010, we searched PubMed for all medical journal articles in the database containing the term "meniere's OR meniere" added within the previous year.  There were exactly 151 articles, almost all of them relevant.  That's one article every 2.4 days!  You can repeat this search right now:  click here.
  • 678 medical journal articles concerning Meniere's Disease were added to PubMed in a recent five year period. 
    • On May 19, 2010, we searched PubMed for all medical journal articles in the database containing the term "meniere's OR meniere" added within the previous five years.  There were exactly 678 articles, almost all of them relevant.  That's one article every 2.7 days!  You can repeat this search right now:  click here.
  • 1,373 medical journal articles concerning Meniere's Disease were added to PubMed in a recent 10 year period. 
    • On May 19, 2010, we searched PubMed for all medical journal articles in the database containing the term "meniere's OR meniere" added within the previous ten years.  There were exactly 1,373 articles, almost all of them relevant.  That's one article every 2.7 days!  You can do repeat this search right now:  click here.
  • Over 6,609 medical journal articles concerning Meniere's Disease are listed in PubMed.
    • On May 19, 2010, we searched PubMed for each and every medical journal articles in in PubMed containing the term "meniere's OR meniere" ever added.  There were 6,609 articles, almost all of them relevant.  You can do this search right now, yourself, as of today:  click here.
In addition, there are numerous medical associations whose members practice and study Meniere's Disease, and these societies often hold symposiums at which experts present current papers describing their studies.  A few of them:

  • American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS).
    • The AAO-HNS has a foundation that funds research, including research on Meniere's Disease.
    • The AAO-HNS holds annual meetings ("Oto Expo"), at which papers on Meniere's Disease are usually among those presented.
  • European Academy of Otologists and Neuro-Otologists (EAONO).
    • The EAONO holds conferences and events throughout the year.
  • International Symposium on Meniere's Disease and Inner Ear Disorders.
    • This symposium is held every five years or so, and is attended by Meniere's Disease doctors and researchers from all over the world.
      • The 6th International Symposium on Meniere's Disease and Inner Ear Disorders was November 14-17, 2011, in Kyoto, Japan.
      • The 7th International Symposium on Meniere's Disease and Inner Ear Disorders is scheduled for 2016 in Italy.  Link (.pdf file).
  • Prosper Meniere Society.
    • This group conducts International Symposiums every two years or so, with workshops on Inner Ear Medicine and Surgery, most of which concern Meniere's Disease.
  • Politzer Society.
    • This is an international society for otological surgery.  The Society holds periodic conferences..

This is not to say that we can ever have enough awareness and research, just that we are not so ignored as some folks would have us believe.  Meniere's Disease is still hardly a household term (contributing to the discrimination against Meniere's patients by employers and many others), and despite the current research efforts, the cause and cure of Meniere's Disease are still unknown.  Much more needs to be done.  But we have *not* been "blown off" by the research community.  No matter who tells you otherwise.

 


How to Use PubMed and the Internet  
To Conduct Your Own Medical Research on the Web
Be sure to discuss your research with your physician.

Research Medical Journal Articles at PubMed

Those of us who are interested in medical research on Meniere's Disease (or any other medical subject) can research PubMed at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).  PubMed includes over 15 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950's. 

  • To access PubMed, click here:  http://www.pubmed.gov.
  • We have prepared instructions on how to search PubMed, below.  Click here.
  • We have preformatted many PubMed searches for you, below.  Click here.

Get Updates of Your PubMed Research

  • Register at MyNCBI.
  • Be sure you are logged in.
  • Conduct a search.
  • Save your search.
  • You will be prompted with an opportunity to have alerts of new articles that result from your search emailed to you, as often as you select -- perhaps daily.
  • Note:  your email system may treat the messages as spam, so check your spam folder.

Find the Full Text of Medical Journal Articles 

PubMed may have only a citation to a medical article, but usually it also has an "abstract" (short summary).  It is always best to get the full text of an article.

  • PubMed.  Sometimes there is a link to the full text article in the PubMed record, but there may be a high fee charged by the medical journal publisher to access the full text. 
  • Findarticles.com.  The full text of some medical articles may be found at Findarticles
  • Local libraries.  Check out local public libraries, medical school libraries, and hospital libraries. ASK what they have to offer in the way of medical research.
    • Most medical school libraries and hospital medical libraries permit public access, although public access is sometimes restricted to certain hours.
    • Even if these libraries do not have the full text article on hand, they will be able to obtain the journal in which the article appears through an inter-library loan at no or low cost.  Do not be shy!
    • In some places, by special arrangement of your public library or your state government, you may get access to private databases (such as Infotrac) from the comfort of your own home (or your library computer stations) via the Internet using your library card number.
  • Consumer health libraries.  U.S. National Institutes of Health have a listing of consumer health libraries in the U.S. and Canada providing services to local residents -- a possible resource to finding the full text of articles.
  • Authors.  Most authors of published articles will send reprints to you upon request; call, write, or email their offices.
  • Your doctor.  You might ask your own physician for a copy of an article; she might happen to have it on hand, and in any event will have a means of obtaining the article; it would be fair to reimburse her for any fees she will incur in obtaining copies of articles for you.
  • Commercial services.  There are services that will copy and send medical journal articles to you.  Loansome Doc at PubMed can get the full text for you via a local library; charges vary.
  • Medscape.  Medscape is another source for full-text copies of articles.  Registration is required to use Medscape but is immediate and free.  After registration, search PubMed using Medscape.  When you view an abstract at Medscape, you will be offered a link by which to order the full text of an article by paying a fee, which is likely to be US$35 or more, plus shipping.

How to Search PubMed

Go to www.pubmed.gov  to search anything at PubMed at NIH/NLM.  You will find links to help and to a tutorial.  PubMed recognizes Boolean logic.  Quick tip:  connectors must be in all capitals ("and" and "or" must be "AND" and "OR") to be recognized as connectors.

Search for every Meniere's Disease medical journal article.  Click here to search the entire PubMed database for "meniere's OR meniere."

Use Our Pre-formatted PubMed Searches

Search using our preformatted searches.  We have preformatted popular searches for you.  Be sure that "limits" is unchecked; if it isn't, uncheck it and search again.  The following links will take you to the latest research at PubMed on the following topics:

How You Can Help Meniere's Disease Research

Arrange for the after-death donation of your temporal bones for research through the (U.S.) National Temporal Bone Donor Program.  The temporal bones contain the organs of hearing and balance in the inner ear.


More Research Resources

  • Clinical trials.
    • What is a clinical trial?  U.S. National Institutes of Health.
    • The U.S. government has a website for information on clinical trials:  www.clinicaltrials.gov.
      • These clinical trials are usually conducted by the NIH (National Institutes of Health).  In the usual clinical trials, there are two groups, the test group and the control group.  The test group is treated in some way.  The control group is "pretend-treated," usually with a placebo ("fake") drug.  Studies may last one year, more or less.  The results of both groups are compared to see whether patients in the test group improved significantly compared to the control group.  You might or might not like to participate in a study.  Remember, one group  will always be given placebo ("fake") treatment.  However, control groups are necessary in research and patients in the control group make very useful contributions to medical science.  If you are interested in participating in a clinical trial, talk to your doctor.
    • The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) has a website for searching for clinical trials:  http://clinicaltrials.ifpma.org/
      • This website searches the U.S. NIH site, http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, and in addition searches other information sources at the same time, providing all the results together.
  • NIH Calls on Scientists to Speed Public Release of Research Publications -- Online Archive Will Make Articles Accessible to the Public.
  • National Temporal Bone Registry.
    • The Winter 2005 (.pdf) issue of the newsletter features an article entitled, "Meniere's Syndrome:  Are Symptoms Caused by Endolymphatic Hydrops?"
  • The Public Library of Science aims to put full texts of U.S. government-funded medical research articles online.
  • Google News -- news from thousands of sourcesClick here to search Google News for "meniere."
    • You can set up "news alerts" to alert you of new articles having your search terms.
  • Yahoo News -- news from thousands of sources.  Click here to search Yahoo News for "meniere."
    • You can set up "news alerts" to alert you of new articles having your search terms.
  • PubMed.  Get daily updates on searches that you save.
    • Register at MyNCBI.
    • Be sure you are logged in.
    • Conduct a search.
    • Save your search.
    • You will be prompted with an opporunity to have alerts of new articles that result from your search emailed to you, as often as you select -- perhaps daily.
    • Note:  your email system may treat the messages as spam, so check your spam folder.
  • Findarticles.  A great website to find medical articles -- and the full text of many medical articles, provided free.  Click here to search Findarticles for all of its free medical articles on Meniere's Disease.
  • Books:  This section has moved to the Books Page.

Copyright © 1997-2013 Meniere's Disease Information Center.  All rights are reserved.
All copying, including (but not limited to) websites, bulletin boards, forums, and blogs, is prohibited.
Click here for more copyright information.