Medical Mispronunciations and Misspelled Words: The Definitive List.
Hearing medical mispronunciations and seeing misspelled words are an under appreciated joy of working in healthcare. Physicians often forget just how alien the language of medicine is to people who don't live it everyday. The best part about being a physician is not helping people recover from critical illness. The best part is not about listening and understanding with compassion and empathy. Nope, the best part about being a physician is hearing patients and other healthcare providers butcher the language of medicine and experiencing great entertainment in the process. Doctors c...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - October 2, 2013 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
Backlash Against Walgreen’s New Painkiller Crackdown | CommonHealth
You may be in for a shock if you try to get a prescription for any controlled substance – from Ambien to opioid pain relievers – filled at Walgreens anywhere around the country.Walgreens recently announced what it calls a new "Good Faith Dispensing" policy under which the pharmacy giant – the largest in the nation – is suddenly requiring its pharmacists to take "additional steps" to verify prescriptions for controlled substances.In plain English, this means that Walgreens pharmacists are going to call your doctor, or at least your doctor's office, to see if your doctor did the right thing in giving you a prescripti...
Source: Psychology of Pain - August 14, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Pharma Marketers Should Hire the Directors of the Documentary Off Label to Do "Real Patient DTC" Ads
Coming soon (August 8 or 9) to a theater that may be near you - if you live in Missoula, MT (or in a few other lesser or greater cities) - is the documentary Off Label, which asks the question: "What's in your medicine cabinet?"If your medicine cabinet contains psychotropic drugs such as Adderall, Ambien, Zoloft, and Prozac, you may want to see this movie. "Often these drugs are combined in polypharmacy cocktails or are given out for unapproved or untested indications, leading to abuse, dangerous side effects, and heavy dependence," says the movie synopsis (here).The movie premiered last year in East and West Coast Intern...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - July 31, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: off-label promotion FDA social media DTC Advertising Chantix movie Source Type: blogs
How Much? 'Evergreening' And Drug Costs In One Swiss Town
For several years, the practice of evergreening has been a contentious topic. The term refers to patent extensions that are based on minor changes in a drug and are often employed when a patent is about to expire and modifications are used to claim a newer version of a drug has been hatched. This can allow a drugmaker to seek extended patent protection and keep the cash register ringing.
The practice has prompted complaints that drugmakers exploit the strategy simply to charge higher prices for so-called follow-on drugs that offer little added benefit. South Africa, for instance, wants to change its patent laws to make the...
Source: Pharmalot - June 6, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
When sleep isn’t safe
FDA approved sleeping pill sends people to the ER.
Good sleep is necessary to maintain life, because during sleep we repair ourselves and process information from the day. We need sleep for our wounds to heal and for our memory to function. Lack of sleep has been linked to immune system problems.
But recently they found out that having insomnia and taking Ambien, a prescription sleeping pill, can be dangerous, too. If you take Ambien for sleep you have a chance of ending up in the emergency room.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, emergency room visits due to Ambien went up 2...
Source: Doctor Kalitenko antiaging blog - May 30, 2013 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: admin Source Type: blogs
Healthcare Update Satellite — 05-29-2013
More HealthCare Updates from around the web are at my other blog at http://drwhitecoat.com.
Next on the FDA hit list … sleeping pills. Number of ED visits related to Ambien prescriptions triples between 2005 and 2010.
Connecticut emergency department declares influx of intoxicated patients from nearby concert venue a “scheduled mass-casualty situation” and a public health issue as sometimes more than 90 patients are taken to local emergency departments in various states of drunkenness.
I used to work at a trauma center near a concert venue. The worst concerts during those days were “OzzFest” and Jimmy Buffet...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - May 29, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs
Orexin and Insomnia
If Valium makes you groggy, and Ambien makes you sleepwalk…
A compound that blocks a brain receptor you probably have never heard of may hold the key to the next generation of sleeping pills—and there is always a next generation of sleeping pills.
A new class of hypnotic compounds that serve as antagonists for the neurotransmitter orexin may combat insomnia without the “confusional arousals” that have come to plague some users of zolpidem, otherwise known as Ambien. Sleepwalking, sleep driving, and sleep sex are common among the reports. Orexin is involved in central nervous system arousal. So-called DORAs, or...
Source: Addiction Inbox - May 7, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Cosmetic Psychopharmacology?
We read everywhere that psychotropics are over-prescribed. The DSM
guidelines have pathologized normal reactions and DSM-V promises to make
this even more so. For example, over 11% of children are now diagnosed
with Attention Deficit Disorder. Our friend, Dr. Mojtabai, tells us
that many patients who are given antidepressants by primary care doctors
don't have a psychiatric diagnosis, our colleague, Dr. Frances (and
many others) doesn't want normal symptoms of grief to be diagnosed as
major depression after 2 weeks of symptoms, and our readers have written
in saying that there are effective ...
Source: Shrink Rap - April 5, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Dinah Source Type: blogs
Women and the Treatment of Pain - NYTimes.com
To the list of differences between men and women, we can add one more: the drug-dose gender gap. Doctors and researchers increasingly understand that there can be striking variations in the way men and women respond to drugs, many of which are tested almost exclusively on males. Early this year, for instance, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it was cutting in half theprescribed dose of Ambien for women, who remained drowsy for longer than men after taking the drug.Women have hormonal cycles, smaller organs, higher body fat composition — all of which are thought to play a role in how drugs affect our b...
Source: Psychology of Pain - March 18, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Medications that Increase the Risks of Patient Falls
Falls are the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injuries for adults 65 and older.
Alzheimer's Reading Room
“Falls are the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injuries for adults 65 and older, and research suggests that those taking four or more medications are at an even greater risk than those who don’t – perhaps two to three times greater,” said Susan Blalock, Ph.D., an associate professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
In 2007, more than 21,700 Americans died as a result of falls and more than 7.9 million were injured by a fall including over 1.8 million older adults who had a fall-rela...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - February 14, 2013 Category: Dementia Authors: Bob DeMarco Source Type: blogs
Top medicine articles for December 2012-January 2013
Here are my suggestions for some of the top articles in medicine for December 2012-January 2013:
Among former Olympic athletes, engagement in disciplines with high intensity exercise did not bring a survival benefit http://buff.ly/UmY9Ur
Non-benzodiazepine hypnotics (Z drugs - eszopiclone, zaleplon, zolpidem) are effective for treatment of adult insomnia http://buff.ly/UZC1g9
Bringing surgical history to life | BMJ http://buff.ly/UZCeQC -- Things change fast in surgery. Within a single generation, ways of operating that had been stable for decades have been overturned. New drugs have revolutionized what were o...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - January 11, 2013 Category: Professors and Educators Tags: Health News of the Day Source Type: blogs
Ambien dose halved by FDA
Published: Jan. 10, 2013 at 8:57 PM
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the dose of Ambien, a widely prescribed sleeping pill, might be high enough the day after use to impair driving.
The FDA recommended the bedtime dose of zolpidem should be lowered because data showed blood levels in some patients might be high enough the morning after use to impair activities that require alertness such as driving.
Thursday's announcement focused on zolpidem products approved for bedtime use, which are marketed as generics and under the brand names Ambien, Ambien CR, Edluar and Zolpimist.
The FDA...
Source: PharmaGossip - January 11, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
FDA Lowers Recommended Dose of Insomnia Drugs, Including Ambien
ABC News is reporting that the FDA is warning that Ambien's effects can linger in the body. People may still be too impaired to drive even 8 hours after taking a 10 mg dose of Ambien. The sleepiness effects are stronger on women. The FDA is now recommending half the current does for women. In a release, the FDA also says "labeling should recommend that health care professionals consider a lower dose for men." The FDA says to check with your doctor before changing dosage. The recommended dose changes apply to all sleep drugs that contain zolpidem. This includes Ambien, Ambien CR, Edluar and Zolpimist.
Take a look:
Perma...
Source: HealthNewsBlog.com - January 10, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: insomnia sleep-aids ambien Source Type: blogs
FDA Issues Wake Up Call Over Sleeping Pill Dosage
The FDA is requiring drugmakers that sell sleeping pills that contain the zolpidem active ingredient – a list that includes Ambien – to lower current recommended doses by half. Why? New data show that zolpidem blood levels in some patients may be high enough the morning after usage to impair activities that require alertness.
This, of course, includes driving. In fact, the labeling change is based on findings in driving simulation and laboratory studies. In some individuals, these showed zolpidem blood levels can increase the risk of a car accident the morning after use (here is the data summary). So maybe ther...
Source: Pharmalot - January 10, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Ambien FDA Sleeping Pills Source Type: blogs
