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
Pain, Insomnia, and Diabetes
By David Spero
Studies show that sleep problems contribute to Type 2 diabetes. But diabetes seems to increase pain sensitivity, and pain makes it harder to sleep. What a vicious cycle! What is the pain/sleep/diabetes connection, and what can we do about it?
I've written several times about diabetes and sleep, and also diabetes and pain. But this week I read an article that links all three problems. In the drug information journal MPR (Monthly Prescribing Reference), Debra Hughes, MS, discusses these issues with Victor Rosenfeld, MD, Medical Director of the Sleep Center at the SouthCoast Medical Group, Savannah, Georgia.
...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - September 11, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Spero Source Type: blogs
Implementation of a publication strategy in the context of reporting
biases. A case study based on new documents from Neurontin® litigation
ConclusionsTaken together, the extracts we present from internal company documents illustrate implementation of a strategy at odds with unbiased study conduct and dissemination. Our findings suggest that Pfizer and Parke-Davis’s publication strategy had the potential to distort the scientific literature, and thus misinform healthcare decision-makers.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3439687/?report=classic (Source: PharmaGossip)
Source: PharmaGossip - September 11, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime by Peter Gøtzsche
'The main reason we take so many drugs is that drug companies don't sell drugs, they sell lies about drugs. This is what makes drugs so different from anything else in life...Virtually everything we know about drugs is what the companies have chosen to tell us and our doctors...the reason patients trust their medicine is that they extrapolate the trust they have in their doctors into the medicines they prescribe. The patients don't realise that, although their doctors may know a lot about diseases and human physiology and psychology, they know very, very little about drugs that hasn't been carefully concocted and...
Source: PharmaGossip - September 1, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Cases: Anti-epileptic Medicines for Pain Management
Discussion: Tri-cyclic antidepressants (TCAs), serotonin-norepinephrine
reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) are the mainstays
of adjuvant therapy for neuropathic pain.
This Case of the Month will focus on oral anti-epileptic neuropathic
pain analgesics. Due to lack of head-to-head data, evidence is presented as
numbers needed to treat (NNT) and numbers needed to harm (NNH). For instance,
an NNT of 5 for 50% pain reduction means for every 5 patients treated with a
drug, only 1 of them would achieve a 50% reduction in pain. Gabapentin (Neurontin)
and pregabalin (Lyrica) are considered firs...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - August 30, 2013 Category: Palliative Carer Workers Authors: Christian Sinclair Source Type: blogs
Breakthroughs in Bipolar Treatment
"We should continue to repurpose treatments and to recognise the role of serendipity" (Geddes & Miklowitz, 2013).That quote was from a recent review article in The Lancet, which did not hint at any impending pharmacological breakthroughs in the treatment of bipolar disorder. In other words, the future of bipolar treatment doesn't look much different from the present (at least in the immediate term). Bipolar disorder, an illness defined by the existence of manic or hypomanic highs, alternating with depressive lows, can be especially difficult to treat. And the mood episode known as a mixed state, where irritability, ex...
Source: The Neurocritic - August 2, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: The Neurocritic Source Type: blogs
Pfizer's Umpteenth Settlement (for $491 Million Plus a Guilty Plea), but No Person Held Responsible
The world's largest research based pharmaceutical company was in court again, as reported by the New York Times, The drug maker Pfizer agreed to pay $491 million to settle criminal and civil charges over the illegal marketing of the kidney-transplant drug Rapamune, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday. In particular, The recent case centers on the practices of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which Pfizer acquired in 2009.Rapamune, which prevents the body’s immune system from rejecting a transplanted organ, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999 for use in patients receiving a kidney tra...
Source: Health Care Renewal - July 31, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: Wyeth impunity crime marketing Pfizer whistle-blowers legal settlements Source Type: blogs
DOJ Probing International Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
Earlier this year, we noted that a new enforcement focus for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will be increased oversight to ensure compliance with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) regulations. Specifically, Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG) for DOJ's Consumer Protection Branch (CPB), noted her division has long worked closely with FDA to promote the safety of pharmaceutical products.
Several months later, it appears that DOJ is acting on this promise in two recent cases. As reported by the Washington Post, Reuters, and ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - July 5, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Scant data on seizure drugs for women's genital pain | Reuters
Although doctors sometimes prescribe anti-seizure drugs to treat chronic pain in the vulva, just a handful of low-quality studies have examined the drugs' effects, according to a new review.
Based on these studies, "it's very difficult to make definitive statements on efficacy," said Dr. Raphael Leo, the study's author from the State University of New York at Buffalo. "Certainly, more investigation is warranted."
Still, "I think that there is promise" for the use of anti-seizure medications, he added.
Chronic pain in a woman's genitals, also called vulvodynia, affects as man...
Source: Psychology of Pain - June 20, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Pharmalot... Pharmalittle... Good Morning
Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? Another busy day is unfolding here on the Pharmalot corporate campus, where the maintence crew is tending to a number of important projects. As for us, we are quaffing the usual cup of stimulation - we are still enjoying Hazelnut Cinnamon Creme - and invite you to join us with a cup of your own. Meanwhile, we also have much to do. So here are some tidbits. Have a great day and feel free to drop us a line at pharmalot@gmail.com when something interesting arises...
Indian Regulator To Review J&J Appeal On License Cancellation (Business Standard)
Pfizer Settles With Canadians...
Source: Pharmalot - June 19, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Kerching!
Drug companies look to profit from DSM-5June 5, 2013, 8:42 a.m. EDTBinge eating and hoarding diagnoses may lead to new salesBy Jen WiecznerThe changes to the DSM-5, the updated manual of psychiatric illnesses released earlier this month, include 15 new mental disorders. Psychiatrists and consumer advocates hope that the new range of diagnoses will help more people find treatment for their suffering. But drug companies could also see a benefit: It’s likely that the changes will expand the demand for prescription medications that could treat these conditions.The DSM-5’s changes widen the treatment potential for...
Source: PharmaGossip - June 6, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Planting drug industry-funded papers in medical journals
Where did the medical community get the idea that Vioxx, Trovan and Baycol were safe and the benefits of Prempro, Neurontin and bisphosphonates outweighed their risks? From research published in medical journals written by drug companies or drug-company funded authors.
Continue reading ...
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 29, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Meds Cancer Medications Source Type: blogs
Six ways Big Pharma manipulates consumers - Salon
This article originally appeared on AlterNet.
The blockbuster pill profit party is over for Big Pharma. Bestselling pills like Lipitor, Seroquel, Zyprexa, Singular and Concerta have gone off patent and sites which their ads sustained are withering on the vine. WebMD, for example, the voice of Pharma on the Web, with a former Pfizer exec serving as CEO, announced it would cut 250 positions in December.
But don’t worry, Wall Street. Pharma isn’t going to deliver disappointing earnings just because it has little or no new drugs coming online and has failed at the very reason for its existence. Here are six new Pharma ma...
Source: PharmaGossip - April 28, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
US Court of Appeals Rules that Off Label Promotion May Be Treated as Racketeering in Civil Litigation
Earlier this month, as reported by Reuters, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an opinion that may allow third-party payers, such as private insurers, to bring “class-action racketeering claims” against Pfizer for its illegal off-label marketing of Neurontin. The off-label chargers stem from a $240 million criminal fine in 2004 paid by Pfizer’s Warner-Lambert unit, as well as a $190 million civil fine paid by Pfizer in connection with the off-label marketing. “Neurontin, developed by a Warner-Lambert unit, was approved in 1993 to treat seizures at a maximum dose of 1800 milligrams per day....
Source: Policy and Medicine - April 18, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
AMSA Expanding Anti-Industry Scorecard to 400 Teaching Hospitals
We recently reported on a survey of 1,610 first- and third-year medical students and 739 residents regarding conflict of interest (COI) policies and their interactions with industry. In our story, we noted that almost every year, the American Medical Students Association (AMSA) publishes a yearly “PharmFree Scorecard” that evaluates the COI policies at American medical schools. Here is a little background and history on AMSA.
The PharmFree Scorecard is funded through the Consumer and Prescriber Education grant program, which resulted from the Neurontin settlement back in 2004.
It is because of organizations lik...
Source: Policy and Medicine - April 16, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
