Along with a steeper financial burden and an increasingly competitive academic environment, this year’s incoming freshman university class will likely be confronted with the pressure to take a little pill that some popular culture references say will m…
Category: Medications
Drug ads are a campaign against physician trust
There was a time when drug reps fed us lunch and gave us an endless supply of pens, pads, and even umbrellas all emblazoned with their newest drugs. They explained why their drug was better than their competitors’ and what it would offer to our patient…
Enter a clinical trial because it helps others, not necessarily yourself
From time to time, I am asked by someone about participating in a medical research study. These situations are usually when an individual, or someone close to them, has unmet medical needs. Understandably, a patient with a condition who is not improv…
Using low-dose naltrexone to treat pain
Lori Pinkley, a 50-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., has struggled with puzzling chronic pain since she was 15. She has had countless disappointing visits with doctors. Some said they couldn’t help her. Others diagnosed her with everything from fibromyal…
How do we manage pain in the era of the opioid crisis?
“6 in 10 Kids Got Opioids After Tonsil Surgery, Study Says.” So screams the headline from The Daily Beast. “In the midst of the opioid crisis, doctors sent many kids home with oxycodone and hydrocodone,” it goes on to say. Another example o…
An expensive treatment may be a victim of its own widening use
Medical treatment has knocked down tumors in 6-year-old Easton Daniels’ brain, but the drug used also wiped out his immune system. To bolster his immune function and help keep him healthy, he has visited a hospital for intravenous infusions of immune g…
Black market pharmaceuticals target immigrants
The bootleg medications were smuggled across the border and sold to mostly Latino immigrants in public spaces throughout Los Angeles — at swap meets, parks, beauty salons and makeshift stands outside mom-and-pop grocery stores. The drugs were cheap, an…
Here’s why your patients disregard prescriptions
Take one-half tablet three times per day with meals, increasing by half each week until reaching a maximum of three tablets three times per day. Did you get a new prescription from your doctor? If so, there is a 50 percent chance you will not adhere to…
How drugmakers became masters at producing authorized generics
When PDL BioPharma’s $40 million blood-pressure medicine faced the threat of a generic rival this year, the company pulled out a little-known strategy that critics say helps keep drugs expensive and competition weak. It launched its own generic version…
While pharmacy benefit managers are watching cable, patients are streaming Netflix
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) including Express Scripts, CVS Health, and OptumRX are the subject of intense criticism by virtually everyone in medicine and politics. While the purpose of PBM’s group purchasing business model was intended to contribu…
