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…
Category: Meds
What the media gets wrong when reporting on “overprescribing”
A recent article in the Macomb Daily reported that a “Shelby Township doctor was convicted last Thursday of all counts for conspiring to distribute more than 300,000 opioid prescription pills valued at over $6 million, following a trial in U.S. D…
The DEA’s war on addiction doctors
Tennessee Dr. Ralph Thomas Reach is a vastly experienced addiction medicine physician. Continued application of his knowledge and pioneering experience could improve the opioid drug overdose death rate in his state. Unfortunately, the state government …
Ozempic: miracle drug or a band-aid for obesity?
An excerpt from Dr. T’s Drop the Fat Diet: 12 Steps to Leaner You Forever. Semaglutide, a medication often marketed as Ozempic, Wegovy, or Rybelsus, has gained immense popularity in recent years. This is especially true in an age where diabetes a…
How gene editing and immunotherapy are changing lives
When I started medical school thirty years ago, and learned about the discovery of streptomycin, I wondered what it must have been like for the doctors who first used it to cure the “white death.” How satisfying it must have been to tell a …
A manifesto for the next revolution in nocebo and placebo studies
An excerpt from The Power of Placebos: How the Science of Placebos and Nocebos Can Improve Health Care by Jeremy Howick. Copyright 2023. Published with permission of Johns Hopkins University Press. “When he had asked me if I knew the cure for hea…
Narcan: Widening access to overcome opioid overdoses
I often recommend books or podcasts for you when they address timely topics in mental health. The May 4, 2023, episode of The Daily podcast was one such episode that I think you should listen to. On that episode, Jan Hoffman, a health law and affairs r…
Drug prices and fast approvals can harm patients
An excerpt from Big Food, Big Pharma, Big Lies. Few fail to be shocked at the rising prices of some prescription drugs. “Drug companies have raised prices relentlessly for decades while manipulating the patent system and other laws to delay compe…
Are clinicians complicit in the Fentanyl epidemic?
I have a friend. He is non-medical, just a person who knows a lot of people. He grew up on the rough side of town. He has lost five friends or relatives this past year, he tells me. All to Fentanyl overdoses. Most were young, in their twenties or thirt…
Will GLP-1s allow our society to eschew its responsibility to create a healthy environment?
Since Ozempic entered the cultural zeitgeist, I have been overwhelmed with requests from my patients – both those who meet criteria to start the medication and those who do not – for this new class of “miracle” drug. While it does work like…
