Tranks
One of the difficulties with pharmaceutical regulation is the length of follow-up in clinical trials. Typically, drugs are approved based on trials of no more than six months duration. This is true even for drugs that people may take for a long time, even for many years. Sometimes the FDA requires post-marketing surveillance or longer term follow-up studies after a drug has been approved, but they often don't, and these requirements aren't even enforced in many cases.Benzodiazepines are very commonly prescribed tranquilizers. Very common brand names are Xanax, Librium, and Ativan. (Rohypnol, also in the class, is a popular...
Source: Stayin' Alive - September 10, 2014 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Why it’s Possible to Spend 80 Hours Planning a Trip
The various methods of vacationing fall on the following spectrum:Next week I travel both to Europe and by myself for the first times. When I decided to pull the trigger on this trip, I’d have pulled a different trigger had I known planning it would require this much time. Here is why it is actually possible to spend 80 hours planning for your solo international travel.You want to experience all kinds of shelter and social interaction so you book a hotel, hostel, Airbnb and couch. Couchsurfing requires you to create a brand new social network profile, but nobody wants a strange dude on his couch so you face unending reje...
Source: I've Still Got Both My Nuts: A True Cancer Blog - August 15, 2014 Category: Cancer Tags: travels Source Type: blogs
How Telehealth May Be Promoting Fraud and Abuse
By TOM LIU I recently called my primary care physician (PCP) for the first time in years to get my immunization records, and encountered a strange message saying he was not currently seeing patients. My mom had apparently encountered the same message weeks ago. “Maybe he retired,” she suggested. I did a quick google search […] (Source: The Health Care Blog)
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 7, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: THCB NABP PCP Prozac Telehealth Xanax Source Type: blogs
Is it Ok to Shrink your Sister in an Emergency?
I'd like to bend your ear with a hypothetical situation and see what you think. This one is for the docs, and I'm going to start and end it with a simple question: is it okay to prescribe for a family member? Is it okay to prescribe a psychotropic medication for oneself or a family member? Before you jump on me, let me tell you that to the best that I am aware, docs have always written prescriptions for themselves and for their family members. An antibiotic, an allergy medication, I think this has been par for the course for straightforward things. When I was an intern, one of the nurses ...
Source: Shrink Rap - June 9, 2014 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Dinah Source Type: blogs
News of the Day and various items
A reader asks if I have discussed prescribing Xanax to elderly people here. Actually I don't think I have, although I have discussed antipsychotic prescribing to elderly people. Advanced age is definitely a counterindication for benzodiazepines, one study even finding an increased risk of dementia, although this study is small and I haven't seen a meta-analysis. Still, elderly people metabolize benzos more slowly, so they get higher plasma concentrations, and they are therefore at higher risk for the usual side effects such as drowsiness. However, I also tend to think that belonging to the species Homo sapiens is also a co...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 16, 2014 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Hospital Quality Measures: Value Based Purchasing 2.0 (The Funny Version).
For years, hospital quality measures have been tracked by private and government insurance programs to try and improve the healthcare services received by their beneficiaries. The most recent example is the Value-Based Purchasing Program (VBP) initiative by The Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). How does CMS describe VBP?"Under the Program, CMS will make value-based incentive payments to acute care hospitals, based either on how well the hospitals perform on certain quality measures or how much the hospitals' performance improves on certain quality measures from their performance during a basel...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - March 14, 2014 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
Suboxone Controversy: Brattleboro Reformer gets a C
In their story about buprenorphine, Suboxone, and opioid dependence, the Brattleboro Reformer gets it about 60% right. They describe the shortage of physicians certified to treat addicts with buprenorphine, correctly identifying most of the diversion of buprenorphine as desperate attempts at self-treatment. They lose points, though, for allowing an ill-informed legislator to suggest getting rid of buprenorphine altogether, without pointing to the example of Georgia, the former USSR republic, where the ban on buprenorphine resulted in the birth of krokodil, a nightmare drug now found in parts of the US.
Cost concerns
...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - March 8, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: J T Junig Tags: Addiction Buprenorphine Public policy Suboxone treatment cost of suboxone film patient cap on suboxone safety of buprenorphine and suboxone suboxone regulation Source Type: blogs
Thriving with Mental Illness: Q&A with Susannah Bortner
Here’s a message we don’t hear nearly enough: Even though living with mental illness is hard — really hard — many people are successfully managing their conditions and savoring satisfying, healthy lives.
Here’s another message we need to hear more: How they do it.
That’s why we’ve created this new interview series. It debuted last month with Elaina J. Martin, who writes the popular Psych Central blog Being Beautifully Bipolar.
This month we’re honored to talk to Susannah Bortner, a mom, writer, early education teacher and amateur baker living in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Below, Bortner, who has panic d...
Source: World of Psychology - March 5, 2014 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. Tags: Anxiety and Panic Disorders General Interview Mental Health and Wellness Psychotherapy Treatment Advocacy Mental Disorder Mental Illness Panic Attack Panic Disorder Suicide Susannah Bortner thriving with mental illness Source Type: blogs
The Creepy Crawlies…
Maggie woke me this morning digging at her cooties – her imaginary creepy crawlies as I call them. I can’t find anything on her and she got her flea medicine recently about a week ago. The whole bed was shaking violently as she vigorously scratched. She is an effective alarm clock. I think it’s her wire hair that is so itchy like wool. Maggie also knows that last night was grocery night and that meant a big breakfast this morning. She got three eggs scrambled plain and I put cheese in mine which she didn’t get. I bought two dozen eggs last night. Breakfast is my biggest meal of the day for me and...
Source: The 4th Avenue Blues - February 25, 2014 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Andrew Quixote Source Type: blogs
Results of the Survey on Who Are the Mentally Ill?
Thank you to everyone who participated!The survey was published on Shrink Rap from December 10, 2013 - December 22, 2013.Respondents were solicited through social media, including blogs, listservs, Facebook, and Twitter. Respondents were not limited to the United States. Please note that the survey was not validated. The data below was pasted directly from the Google "Summary of Responses" with no analysis or interpretation.SummaryAnyone who has seen a therapist is mentally illTrue172%False67698%Anyone who has been in psychotherapy with a psychiatrist is mentally illTrue619%False63091%Anyone who take...
Source: Shrink Rap - January 2, 2014 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Dinah Source Type: blogs
Are Vicodin T-Shirts Just Pop Culture Or Tasteless And Harmful?
During an era when the abuse and misuse of prescription painkillers is a troubling and controversial issue, what should we make of shirts that boldly sport the names Vicodin, Adderall and Xanax? Are these drugs so widely accepted that the shirts are merely an ordinary barometer of popular culture? Or are these an inappropriate and tasteless attempt to glorify behavior that trivializes a serious problem?
As part of its argument to protest its Vicodin trademark, AbbVie recently filed a lawsuit against Kitson, a trendy Los Angeles retailer that has been marketing these t-shirts. And the drugmaker argues that the ‘designer d...
Source: Pharmalot - December 11, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Standardize drug names and reduce the risk of medication errors
Ever get confused over the names of medicines?
I do.
There’s Zantac and Xanax. Zanaflex and Zaleplon.
But Zanaflex is also known as tizanidine. Tizanidine functions very differently than Zantac and its other name, ranitidine, even though they sound alike.
Every drug has (at least) two names — one proprietary, and one generic. Proprietary names are created to sound catchy by the original manufacturer, almost always under a patent. The generic names are more like chemical names, in that drugs of the same class that are similarly purposed will have common suffixes, like the cholesterol controlling pills known as s...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 5, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Meds Medications Source Type: blogs
Sneak Attack--Monthly Goals
Photo: byron chinSo, we're a month away from that most amusing time of year, New Years Resolution Season!Hope springs eternal, eh?I know not everyone is a fan of the annual Resolution Ritual. Each year, millions of earnest folks set lofty goals and then, for the most part, totally blow 'em off a few weeks or days or even hours later. Getting healthier and/or more productive generally involves willpower, self-discipline, and deprivation--and dressing it up in a party hat, alas, doesn't make it suck any less.Portion control? Nooooooo!!!photo: tambakoBut, if you, like me, can't help but join in the annual Failure Festiv...
Source: Cranky Fitness - December 2, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Crabby McSlacker Source Type: blogs
It Is Interesting To See An Editorial In The SMH Pointing Out E-Health Failure On Mr Abbott’s Part.
This editorial appeared last week in the Sydney Morning Herald.Electronic health records will make it easier to save a lifeDate November 11, 2013 EDITORIALHow could 22 doctors overlook the signs that one man was suffering from a serious drug addiction? Nathan Attard, 34, died alone, in an apartment infested with stray animals and filled with rubbish and drug paraphernalia, a Sydney coroner's court has heard. Doctors had prescribed him an array of medication including Xanax, morphine, Seroquel and Valium.After the conclusion of the inquest into Attard's death, Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes is expected to recommend a st...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - November 19, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Dr David More MB PhD FACHI Source Type: blogs
Sarah L.
Sarah’s story is a reminder that gluten sensitivity comes in many different forms. – Dr. Perlmutter
11 years ago, in my third trimester of pregnancy, I developed itchy skin that made my life all but unbearable. I did neither marks nor welts on my skin. I considered myself “lucky” when hives would show so people didn’t think I was totally crazy.
I saw my GP, dermatologists, and of course a psychiatrist. I was prescribed Effexor, Adavan, Xanax. Nothing helped the itch, and I knew these drugs were not what I needed. I wasn’t crazy or depressed. I was crazy and depressed because my skin felt...
Source: Renegade Neurologist - A Blog by David Perlmutter, MD, FACN - November 12, 2013 Category: Neurologists Authors: gbadmin Tags: Success adavan digestive effexor gluten free Gluten Sensitivity itch itchy skin Pregnancy Pregnant xanax Source Type: blogs
