A recent investigation in Quebec uncovered a concerning trend: benzodiazepines — medications commonly used for sleep or anxiety — are being overprescribed. This investigation has prompted the Quebec College of Physicians to closely examine …
Category: Medications
Polypharmacy and prescribing cascades [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Join us for a discussion on medication awareness and prescribing cascades with Paula Rochon, a geriatrician. As we embark on a new year, many focus on diet and exercise re…
How Enhanced Recovery After Surgery solves our opioid problems
In retrospect, we were an addicted nation waiting to happen. Not from a self-indulgent culture, not from an unwillingness to suffer hardship, nor any of the generational criticisms of lack of grit. Our opioid crisis derives from an impatient culture th…
Topoisomerase inhibitors and chronic pain
Topoisomerase inhibitors emerged in the American medical landscape in 1971, thanks to the discovery by Dr. Jim Wang of the E. coli omega protein. Topoisomerase I, an enzyme identified by Dr. Wang, plays a crucial role in DNA unwrapping from supercoilin…
Off-label prescriptions, side effects, and lawsuits: Navigating ethical and legal dilemmas
A recent TV advertisement attempted to recruit clients for a class action suit against a pharmaceutical manufacturer (PM) for a medication side effect (SE). The “cause of action” was unstated: was it the side effect’s existence or tha…
DEA overreach: a threat to doctors’ freedom in American medicine
Today, doctors’ liberty and property are at risk when they choose to treat a patient. Not because of some new law but because of the misapplication of old ones. The current opioid panic has essentially given the DEA free rein to target any physic…
Where do they come up with all those goofy names for prescription drugs, anyway?
An excerpt from Pills, Shills, and the Psychiatry Wars: Musings from the Drug Safety & Healthcare News Blog. I was spreading pine straw around the bushes in my yard in Atlanta, Georgia, when I started thinking about … you guessed it! The goof…
Gene therapies for chronic pain?
Gene therapy is starting to come into its own, and it will change medicine more profoundly than anything that came before. Just like when antibiotics were discovered almost exactly a century ago, we are on the cusp of another revolution in medicine. On…
Ben Franklin’s timeless wisdom: a key to solving America’s opioid crisis
In 1736, Ben Franklin famously advised Philadelphians that preventing fires is better than fighting them. Mr. Franklin’s advice is just as applicable today in addressing America’s opioid crisis. Billions of opioid settlement dollars are bei…
Novel medications and genetic tests: a perfect storm for physician liability
The German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal has announced the start of a human addiction potential (HAP) trial of a first-in-class analgesic called cebranopadol, described as “less addictive” than previous medications. We’ve been dow…
