Depression: Common medication side effect?
This study is especially thought-provoking, given that more and more people are taking medications with depression or suicidal thoughts as possible side effects. The CDC just released updated data showing a troubling recent rise in suicide rates, and that 54% of those who die from suicide do not have a known mental health disorder, so this is an important public health issue.
That said, it is important to note: in this study, people who used these medications were more likely to be widowed and have chronic health problems, both of which are associated with a higher risk of depression. And many (but not all) of these medica...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - July 16, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Anxiety and Depression Drugs and Supplements Health Source Type: blogs
" Hope in a Bottle " - Components of Purdue Pharma Stealth Marketing Campaign for Oxycontin Revealed by Legal Documents from Tennessee
Introduction: Disinformation and Stealth Marketing CampaignsBack in the distant past the US government made some attempt to hold big health care corporations to account for misleading marketing practices. We learned a lot about these practices from documents revealed in the resulting litigation, and in particular, about stealthy, deceptive systematicmarketing,lobbying, andpolicy advocacy campaigns on behalf of big health care organizations, often pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. For example, in 2012 wefound out about the stealth marketing campaign used by GlaxoSmithKline to sell its a...
Source: Health Care Renewal - July 8, 2018 Category: Health Management Tags: deception disinformation narcotics perverse incentives propaganda public relations Purdue Pharma stealth marketing Source Type: blogs
True Confessions On Why I Prescribe Things Without'Evidence '
by Drew RosielleWe have a ' required reading ' list for our fellowship, which includes a bunch of what I think are landmark or otherwise really important studies. One of them is thisvery well done RCT of continuous ketamine infusions for patients with cancer pain, which showed it to be ineffective (and toxic).We also recently have seen another high-quality study published with negative results for ketamine. This was a Scottish, multi-center, randomized, placebo-controlled, intention-to-treat, and double-blinded study oforal ketamine for neuropathic pain in cancer patients. The study involved 214 patients, 75% of whom were ...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - July 6, 2018 Category: Palliative Care Tags: fatigue ketamine methylphenidate neuropathic pain research research issues rosielle The profession Source Type: blogs
True Confessions On Why I Prescribe Things Without'Evidence '
by Drew RosielleWe have a ' required reading ' list for our fellowship, which includes a bunch of what I think are landmark or otherwise really important studies. One of them is thisvery well done RCT of continuous ketamine infusions for patients with cancer pain, which showed it to be ineffective (and toxic).We also recently have seen another high-quality study published with negative results for ketamine. This was a Scottish, multi-center, randomized, placebo-controlled, intention-to-treat, and double-blinded study oforal ketamine for neuropathic pain in cancer patients. The study involved 214 patients, 75% of whom were ...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - July 6, 2018 Category: Palliative Care Tags: fatigue ketamine methylphenidate neuropathic pain research research issues rosielle The profession Source Type: blogs
Might Depression Be Linked to One of These Popular Medications?
If you’re taking beta blockers, certain kinds of anxiety drugs, certain types of painkillers (including ibuprofen), proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) (used to treat acid reflux), ACE inhibitors (used to treat high blood pressure), or anti-convulsant drugs, you may be at greater risk for depression. That’s according to a new, large-scale study published earlier this week in JAMA.
However, this was a correlational study, so it can’t say that these medications actually cause depression or not. It may be that people with greater health problems are more likely to take one of these medications and be depressed abo...
Source: World of Psychology - June 15, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: Depression General Medications Psychiatry Research Drugs cause depression popular medications Source Type: blogs
How Do We Counter Health Care Disinformation Under a Disinformer-in-Chief?
DiscussionAn international organization, Cambridge Analytica/ SCL based in the UK, led by Trump confidantes including his last campaign leader and former White House strategic adviser Steve Bannon, and major Republican donors and hedge fund magnates Robert and Rebekah Mercer, worked with the Trump 2016 campaign, particularly coordinating with digital coordinator Brad Parscale. Cambridge Analytica/ SCL leveraged Facebook private data on millions of people, obtained from most without their specific permission, to create a " psyops " political disinformation campaign featuring emotional appeals to voters ' internal psyc...
Source: Health Care Renewal - March 28, 2018 Category: Health Management Tags: crime disinformation Donald Trump extortion propaganda stealth health policy advocacy stealth lobbying stealth marketing Source Type: blogs
CMS Posts CY 2019 Notice and Call Letter
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted the calendar year (CY) 2019 Advance Notice and Call Letter explaining proposed methodological and payment changes for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, as well as key policies under Part D. The proposal includes opioid prescribing limits in Medicare Part D and changes to MA utilization of encounter data. It also expands MA supplemental benefits and reducing payments to Employer Group Waiver Plans.
Net Payment Impact
For MA plans, CMS estimates a +1.84 percent net increase on average relative to CY 2018 becau...
Source: Policy and Medicine - March 9, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Proposed Medicare Changes to Limit Opioid Prescribing
by Chad KollasOn February 1, 2018, the Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services (CMS)published its Advance Notice of Methodological Changes for Calendar Year 2019. Included in these proposed rules were several directives intended to reduce" Opioid Overutilization ” (see p. 202), including formal adoption of the “90 morphine milligram equivalent (MME) threshold cited in the CDC Guideline, which was developed by experts as the level that prescribers should generally avoid reaching with their patients (p. 203). ” CMS proposed “adding additional flags for high-risk beneficiaries who use ‘potentiator’ drugs (such...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - February 4, 2018 Category: Palliative Care Tags: CMS health policy kollas medicare opioids Source Type: blogs
Proposed Medicare Changes to Limit Opioid Prescribing
by Chad KollasOn February 1, 2018, the Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services (CMS)published its Advance Notice of Methodological Changes for Calendar Year 2019. Included in these proposed rules were several directives intended to reduce" Opioid Overutilization ” (see p. 202), including formal adoption of the “90 morphine milligram equivalent (MME) threshold cited in the CDC Guideline, which was developed by experts as the level that prescribers should generally avoid reaching with their patients (p. 203). ” CMS proposed “adding additional flags for high-risk beneficiaries who use ‘potentiator’ drugs (such...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - February 4, 2018 Category: Palliative Care Tags: CMS health policy kollas medicare opioids Source Type: blogs
Medical marijuana
There are few subjects that can stir up stronger emotions among doctors, scientists, researchers, policy makers, and the public than medical marijuana. Is it safe? Should it be legal? Decriminalized? Has its effectiveness been proven? What conditions is it useful for? Is it addictive? How do we keep it out of the hands of teenagers? Is it really the “wonder drug” that people claim it is? Is medical marijuana just a ploy to legalize marijuana in general?
These are just a few of the excellent questions around this subject, questions that I am going to studiously avoid so we can focus on two specific areas: why do patient...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 15, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Peter Grinspoon, MD Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Drugs and Supplements Health Pain Management Source Type: blogs
How Long Does Shingles Last In The Elderly?
View Original Article Here: How Long Does Shingles Last In The Elderly?
Shingles is a viral infection that follows a varicella-zoster infection, although it can take decades for symptoms of the secondary disease to emerge. The condition presents as a painful and blistering rash, but it is not life-threatening.
According to the Center for Disease Control, there are nearly one million cases in the United States each year, and almost half of those cases are in older adults over age 60. Some people only see one instance of the illness, while others have recurring symptoms, but 30 percent of Americans will develop shingles at s...
Source: Shield My Senior - December 8, 2017 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Vin Tags: Senior Safety Source Type: blogs
How Long Does Shingles Last In The Elderly?
Shingles is a viral infection that follows a varicella-zoster infection, although it can take decades for symptoms of the secondary disease to emerge. The condition presents as a painful and blistering rash, but it is not life-threatening.
According to the Center for Disease Control, there are nearly one million cases in the United States each year, and almost half of those cases are in older adults over age 60. Some people only see one instance of the illness, while others have recurring symptoms, but 30 percent of Americans will develop shingles at some point in their lifetime.
Duration of Shingles: Timeline of the Viru...
Source: Shield My Senior - December 8, 2017 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Vin Tags: Senior Safety Source Type: blogs
How Long Does Shingles Last In The Elderly?
View Original Article Here: How Long Does Shingles Last In The Elderly?
Shingles is a viral infection that follows a varicella-zoster infection, although it can take decades for symptoms of the secondary disease to emerge. The condition presents as a painful and blistering rash, but it is not life-threatening.
According to the Center for Disease Control, there are nearly one million cases in the United States each year, and almost half of those cases are in older adults over age 60. Some people only see one instance of the illness, while others have recurring symptoms, but 30 percent of Americans will develop shingles at s...
Source: Shield My Senior - December 8, 2017 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Vin Tags: Senior Safety Source Type: blogs
One Barely Noticed Settlement by Pfizer Suggests the Futility of Polite Protests about Health Policy
A few days ago we noticed just one more marcher in theparade of legal settlements. But it was once again a huge health care corporation, and it had aspects that demanded attention.Pfizer Makes $94 Million Settlement of Allegations of Fraud to Delay Generic CompetitionA tinyitem in Becker ' s Hospital News on November 28, 2017, stated:Pfizer will pay $94 million to resolve allegations that it used fraudulent patents to delay generic competition for its anti-inflammatory drug Celebrex.The lawsuit, brought by 32 direct purchasers of Celebrex in April and certified a class action lawsuit in August, claimed Pfizer attempt...
Source: Health Care Renewal - December 3, 2017 Category: Health Management Tags: adverse effects Celebrex deception impunity legal settlements Pfizer restraint of competition Source Type: blogs
A Stealth Marketer Goes Through the Revolving Door to ... the President's Council of Economic Advisors?!
Stealthy, deceptive systematicmarketing,lobbying, andpolicy advocacy campaigns on behalf of big health care organizations, often pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, have long been a subject of Health Care Renewal. A relatively recently revealedexample was the stealth marketing campaign used by GlaxoSmithKline to sell its antidepressant Paxil. This campaign includedmanipulating andsuppressing clinical research,bribing physicians to prescribe the drug, use ofkey opinion leaders as disguised marketers, and manipulation ofcontinuing medical education. Other notable examples included Jo...
Source: Health Care Renewal - August 24, 2017 Category: Health Management Tags: conflicts of interest deception Donald Trump revolving doors stealth health policy advocacy stealth lobbying stealth marketing Source Type: blogs
