(1) Cases of phocomelia in the early 1960's in Germany and Australia led to the identification of thalidomide as a human teratogen.

(2) Most folks who know about drug discovery will tell you about the lessons of thalidomide as they relate to the chirality of drugs.

(3) We have seen it when the sons and daughters of the mothers who were given diethylstilbestrol showed up seriously ill a generation later, and when infants whose mothers were given thalidomide were born deformed.

(4) But in 1998 the FDA approved thalidomide for treating the debilitating and disfiguring lesions associated with erythema nodosum leprosum.

(5) In addition to sleepiness and constipation, thalidomide can also occasionally cause nerve damage in the arms and legs, and thus electrical coduction within nerves of the arms and legs must be carefully monitored.

(6) The other thing about congenital malformations is that whether it's a toxin like thalidomide or Vitamin A for example, the damage that it does really depends on what point in pregnancy you're exposed to the toxin.

(7) Approximately 5,000 to 7,000 malformed infants were born to women who ingested thalidomide during pregnancy.

(8) The patients were randomly assigned to either 200 mg daily of thalidomide or a dummy drug for a period of 24 weeks.

(9) Virtually all patients who have received thalidomide over the past six years have received the drug for cancer, making this drug the only one in the country whose use is exclusively off label.

(10) Taking even a single dose of thalidomide during early pregnancy may cause major birth defects.

(11) Studies have shown that administration of thalidomide improves weight gain in both HIV-positive and HIV-negative tuberculosis patients.

(12) Some of the autistic children born to mothers who took thalidomide also had misshapen ears, as well as abnormalities in the nerves of the head and face.

(13) Kevin is one of the many people born with shortened limbs after his mother took thalidomide to treat morning sickness during pregnancy.

(14) First, the effects produced by thalidomide in pregnant women had not occurred before with other drugs and secondly, it was not easy to replicate the effects seen in humans in animal species.

(15) This was in spite of such FDA victories as the ban of thalidomide , which caused phocomelia in more than 8000 babies in Europe, where the drug was freely used.

(16) Thalidomide used to treat lung cancer: A study examining the combined use of thalidomide and conventional cancer drugs to treat small cell lung cancer is being supported by the Cancer Research Campaign.

(17) Between 1957 and the early 1960s, thalidomide was used by several thousand pregnant women across the world to ease their morning sickness.

(18) The patient was treated with thalidomide 400 mg daily for 10 weeks.

(19) However, between May and October, a doctor in Australia discovered that the common factor in a number of monster births was that the mothers had taken thalidomide during pregnancy.

(20) Medications like thalidomide or isotretinon can cause tragic birth defects.