CBD and other medications: Proceed with caution
Products containing cannabidiol (CBD) seem to be all the rage these days, promising relief from a wide range of maladies, from insomnia and hot flashes to chronic pain and seizures. Some of these claims have merit to them, while some of them are just hype. But it won’t hurt to try, right? Well, not so fast. CBD is a biologically active compound, and as such, it may also have unintended consequences. These include known side effects of CBD, but also unintended interactions with supplements, herbal products, and over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription medications. Doubling up on side effects While generally considered safe...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 11, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Katsiaryna Bykov, PharmD, ScD Tags: Drugs and Supplements Marijuana Medical Research Safety Source Type: blogs

Black boxes: health warning or profit warning?
“Boxed warnings” or“black boxes” are the strictest FDA label warnings. They appear on cigarettes, fluoroquinolones (for tendon rupture), Lamictal (for SJS and TEN), Accutane (birth defects), and other products with well-known risks. The industry obviously dislikes black boxes since they reduce sales (though their lobbyists charge the boxes“confuse” and“unnecessarily alarm” patients). So […]Find jobs at  Careers by KevinMD.com.  Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.  Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 1, 2020 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/martha-rosenberg" rel="tag" > Martha Rosenberg < /a > < /span > Tags: Meds Medications Pulmonology Source Type: blogs

Top 25 Psychiatric Medications for 2018
Psychiatric medications are an important part of treatment for many people with mental disorders, such as depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia, anxiety, and others. They play an important role in helping to alleviate the most serious symptoms, allowing people to better focus on their lives and on other treatment types, such as psychotherapy. Psychiatric medications are an important part of many people’s treatment plans for obtaining the most effective treatment for a mental health concern or mental illness. It’s good to know what drugs are being prescribed most often for mental disorders in the U.S...
Source: World of Psychology - December 15, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: General Medications Psychiatry psychiatric meds psychiatric prescriptions Source Type: blogs

What Do I Do When My Antidepressant Stops Working?
This study examined 103 patients with bipolar 1 disorder who, despite taking a mood stabilizer, experienced frequent relapses. During a 12-month period, the group receiving cognitive therapy had significantly fewer bipolar episodes and reported less mood symptoms on the monthly mood questionnaires. They also had less fluctuation in manic symptoms. It’s normal to panic in the days and weeks your symptoms return; however, as you can see, there are many options to pursue. If the first approach doesn’t work, try another. Persevere until you achieve full remission and feel like yourself again. It will happen. Trust me on th...
Source: World of Psychology - March 1, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Therese J. Borchard Tags: Antidepressant Bipolar Depression General Medications Manic Episode Mood Disorder Mood Stabilizer Relapse Source Type: blogs

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

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 I Dealt with Depression After Brain Surgery
Once again I was on the phone to my friend, sobbing. She’d put up with my tears every day since I left the hospital. Two or three daily meltdowns were the norm. Many of my tears were over things that would have merely irritated me before: misplaced scissors, dirty socks in the middle of the living room, a brief computer glitch. I have cavernous angiomas, tangles of malformed blood vessels, scattered throughout my brain. Two of them — one larger than a golf ball in my right parietal lobe, and the other, smaller, in my brain stem — had bled, and I underwent brain surgeries to remove them. The bleeds and surgeri...
Source: World of Psychology - October 31, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Psych Central Staff Tags: Antidepressant Brain and Behavior Brain Blogger Depression Disorders Health-related Medications Personal Publishers Antidepressants brain injury Brain Surgery Chemical Imbalance Clinical Depression Denial Therapy Source Type: blogs

Top 25 Psychiatric Medications for 2016
Most people understand that the role of psychiatric medications is to help alleviate the symptoms associated with different types of mental disorders, such as depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia, anxiety, and more. Psychiatric medications are an important part of a comprehensive treatment plan for effectively treating people who have a mental health concern or mental illness. It’s good to know what drugs are being most-often prescribed for mental disorders in the U.S. These are the top 25 psychiatric medications by number of U.S. prescriptions dispensed in 2016, according to QuintilesIMS, a global infor...
Source: World of Psychology - October 12, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: General Medications Psychiatry Treatment medications for mental illness Psychiatric Drugs Psychiatric Medications psychiatric meds top psychiatric medications Source Type: blogs

A Chemical Hiccup: Medicated Oblivion and Art
“I want to hold you in a warm Atlantic, A sea of my own making, a meringue of lapis wine.” It is bedtime, and I have swallowed my evening cocktail of bipolar drugs: 300 mg of Seroquel, the Lamictal, and, of course, the Clonazepam. The Seroquel silence is seeping in. I have about 20 minutes on this dead-end road. Soon, I will fall asleep, content and comfortable, a pleasant and sleeping “high-functioning bipolar,” but I will not get to think about what happens to that person in the warm waves of the Atlantic or find the rhythm that goes with my lapis wine. Instead, I will forget about the beginnings of my poem in m...
Source: World of Psychology - October 4, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Carin Meyer Tags: Bipolar Creativity Medications Personal Artistic Ability Bipolar Disorder Creative Abilities Depressive Episode Manic Episode Mood Stabilizers side effects Source Type: blogs

Mandatory Reporting of Pharmacy Prescription Errors?
Following the widely-reported 2014 case of a Cincinnati pharmacist incorrectly filling a prescription which led to a serious patient injury, the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy is now poised to promulgate a new regulation requiring pharmacists to report errors and to the board. This may be the first attempt by a US state board of pharmacy to require dispensing error reporting. (However, about six years ago, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia instituted a required reporting system that has resulted in over 20,000 reports of errors and “near-misses” each year.) The facts of the 2014 case are direct: A pharmacist w...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - March 28, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Bioethics Today Tags: Health Care Pharmaceuticals Pharmacy Ethics syndicated Source Type: blogs

To See or Not to See
A   A 17-year-old boy presented to the emergency department after having a seizure. Initial vital signs included a temperature of 38°C, heart rate of 134 beats/min, respiratory rate of 22 breaths/min, blood pressure of 142/93 mm Hg, and pulse oximetry of 97% on room air. His physical exam is significant for tachycardia and pupils are 5 mm bilaterally and reactive to light with horizontal nystagmus. He is awake, confused, and combative.   Paramedics report that his mother found him in his bedroom was acting strangely before he fell to the floor and began convulsing. ED staff administered 2 mg intravenous lorazepam, ...
Source: The Tox Cave - January 4, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs

AED's and psychiatric function
< div dir= " ltr " style= " text-align: left; " trbidi= " on " > < script type= " text/javascript " > var gaJsHost = (( " https: " == document.location.protocol) ? " https://ssl. " : " http://www. " ); document.write(unescape( " %3Cscript src= ' " + gaJsHost + " google-analytics.com/ga.js ' type= ' text/javascript ' %3E%3C/script%3E " )); < /script > Psychiatric function worse: < br / > < br / > < br / > levetiracetam < br / > topiramate < br / > zonisamide < br / > tiagabine < br / > phenobarbital < br / > periampanel < br / > < br / > < br / > psychiatric function better < br / > < br / > < br / > carbamazepine < b...
Source: neurologyminutiae - August 21, 2015 Category: Neurology Source Type: blogs