Drugs and prescribing

1,242 articles · Since 2007

Articles, page 2

The 2026 7-OH ban will hit dependent users the hardest

September 3, 2026Sep 3, 2026

"If you violate our rule, we are going to make you pay for it. You could be looking at up to 30-year prison sentences, and believe me, we will be looking to make some examples of bad actors." With these…

“If you violate our rule, we are going to make you pay for it. You could be looking at up to 30-year prison sentences, and believe me, we will be looking to make some examples of bad actors.”

With these words, Florida’s attorney general announced the state’s June 2026 scheduling of 7-hydroxymitragynine (a short-acting psychoactive agent that shares common properties with both opioids and stimulants) and other concentrated derivatives of …

Are opioid prescribing rates really driving overdoses?

Hunter Dlugas

September 3, 2026Sep 3, 2026

There very well may have been times throughout our country's history where opioids have been overprescribed, such as the Civil War era and 2000 to 2010. Of course, determining whether opioid prescribing is actually excessive requires one to quantify an…

There very well may have been times throughout our country’s history where opioids have been overprescribed, such as the Civil War era and 2000 to 2010. Of course, determining whether opioid prescribing is actually excessive requires one to quantify an association of opioid prescription rates with some relevant population characteristic (e.g., opioid overdoses per capita). Failing to consider the relationship between opioid prescription rates and any other population characteristic …

GLP-1 weight regain: We are funding the wrong half

Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, MBA

September 1, 2026Sep 1, 2026

I have some version of the same conversation every week now. A patient is starting semaglutide or tirzepatide, and partway through the visit they ask the question I suspect most of us are hearing constantly: What happens if I ever…

For a while I gave the honest-but-incomplete answer, that we’d cross that bridge when we got there. I don’t anymore, because I think the real answer has less to do …

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Are peptides safe? What the evidence actually shows

John K. Smith, MD

August 31, 2026Aug 31, 2026

Peptides are rapidly becoming one of the most talked-about developments in modern medicine. They are being positioned as solutions for weight loss, muscle recovery, anti-aging, skin health, and overall performance. Patients are increasingly arriving at appointments with detailed questions about…

At a foundational level, peptides are not experimental substances. They are short chains of amino acids, essentially small proteins, …

Sliding scale insulin is a 1934 idea in a 2026 hospital

Michael Duben, MD

August 28, 2026Aug 28, 2026

Somewhere in a hospital right now, a physician is ordering a sliding scale of short-acting insulin to be given before a meal, at a dose set by the premeal blood glucose. Not a correction dose for hyperglycemia on top of a meal dose. The meal dose. Blood glucose before a meal describes what has already happened. It says nothing about whether the tray holds 20 g of carbohydrate or 90. …

How supplement fraud slips past a certificate of analysis

Alisa Sano, MPH

August 27, 2026Aug 27, 2026

In our first article, we discussed the international regulatory clash between U.S. supplement mandates (21 CFR 111) and foreign food/supplement laws. This gap can lead to inadequate dietary ingredient identity verification. "We review a Certificate of Analysis (CoA) for 100…

“We review a Certificate of Analysis (CoA) for 100 percent of our globally sourced ingredients.” This is a frequently offered defense by supplements’ brand owners when challenged on international supply chain vulnerabilities. To a physician, this defense sounds like an …

The Seroquel controversy most doctors have forgotten

Martha Rosenberg

August 27, 2026Aug 27, 2026

Few drugs boast the rap sheet of Seroquel (quetiapine). After the pharmaceutical industry marketed atypical antipsychotics like Seroquel as amazingly superior to older antipsychotics like Thorazine and Haldol (pay no attention to their same tardive dyskinesia side effects), Seroquel became its manufacturer’s second-best-selling drug globally, behind only Nexium and netting $5.3 billion in 2011. Many have forgotten Seroquel’s contested past, including how an early proponent went to prison in …

Is your patient’s new symptom a prescribing cascade?

Narinder Singh Parhar, MD

August 26, 2026Aug 26, 2026

Modern scientific medicine has given humanity extraordinary tools. Antibiotics transformed once-lethal infections into treatable illnesses. Cardiovascular medications prevent strokes and myocardial infarctions. Insulin, anticoagulants, immunotherapies, psychiatric medications, and countless other treatments have extended and improved millions of lives. The problem…

The problem is not medication. The problem begins when our capacity to prescribe becomes greater than our discipline to ask whether every intervention remains necessary. That distinction is increasingly important in an aging …

Nattokinase vs. statins and the limits of plaque data

Meghan Johnston, MPH

August 23, 2026Aug 23, 2026

The latest health craze from the wellness world is growing across social media platforms, leaving many wondering if they can stop taking their cholesterol medications. According to Google Trends, Americans are Googling “nattokinase” 130 percent more now than they did this time last year, and #natto pulls up over 200,000 posts on Instagram. Interest has also been fueled by high-profile influencers like Joe Rogan, whose podcast published an enthusiastic …

GLP-1 weight loss stigma changes what patients disclose

Patience C. Ennis

August 22, 2026Aug 22, 2026

She had five close friends. She told one. Not because she doubted the prescription. Her GP had raised tirzepatide after her bloodwork showed worsening insulin resistance, and the decision followed a real clinical conversation. She told one friend because she…

She had five close friends. She told one.

Not because she doubted the prescription. Her GP had raised tirzepatide after her bloodwork showed worsening insulin resistance, and the decision followed a real clinical conversation. She told one friend because she did not know what the truth might do to the other four relationships.

Would her weight loss still count? Would lunch become surveillance? Would every smaller portion be treated as evidence? Would …

Why a supplement supply chain hides behind its label

Alisa Sano, MPH

August 19, 2026Aug 19, 2026

"I bought this premium multivitamin online," Patient A tells you during a routine history-taking at the annual checkup. "It's a prominent Japanese brand. Since people over there have such long life expectancies, this has to be safer and purer than…

“I bought this premium multivitamin online,” Patient A tells you during a routine history-taking at the annual checkup. “It’s a prominent Japanese brand. Since people over there have such long life expectancies, this has to be safer and purer than a domestic brand, right?”

As a health care provider, you would find it easy to agree. Countries universally recognized for longevity and high-quality standards enjoy an organic, built-in reputation for wellness …

Post-vaccination syndrome treatment update for 2026

Harry Oken, MD

August 16, 2026Aug 16, 2026

A year ago, I wrote about post-vaccination syndrome (PVS) after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination as a real, patient-reported problem that remains poorly defined and understudied. I described my wife's experience and called for serious study of patients with persistent symptoms after…

A year ago, I wrote about post-vaccination syndrome (PVS) after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination as a real, patient-reported problem that remains poorly defined and understudied. I described my wife’s experience and called for serious study of patients with persistent symptoms after vaccination.

My wife’s prolonged, relapsing illness prompted me to write publicly about PVS. Her symptoms began approximately two weeks after her third mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in late 2021. Since then, …

Testosterone therapy for men requires precision care

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

August 14, 2026Aug 14, 2026

Testosterone is one of the most discussed and misunderstood tools in modern men's health. On one hand, it is portrayed as a remedy for aging. On the other, its legitimate clinical value is frequently downplayed. The evidence suggests a more…

Testosterone is one of the most discussed and misunderstood tools in modern men’s health. On one hand, it is portrayed as a remedy for aging. On the other, its legitimate clinical value is frequently downplayed. The evidence suggests a more nuanced view: Testosterone replacement can be life-changing for appropriately diagnosed hypogonadism, while many broader benefits remain evolving or indirect.

The well-known benefits are in hormonal and sexual health. For men with …

BPC-157 safety remains uncertain without human evidence

Francisco M. Torres, MD

August 14, 2026Aug 14, 2026

This patient had done everything right. Six months earlier, he had come into my office barely able to lift his arm above shoulder height, the result of a rotator cuff injury that had quietly worsened over a year of ignoring it. We treated it with the art of clinical approach: an image-guided intra-articular injection to calm the inflammation, followed by a disciplined course of physical therapy. He showed up for …

Why medical cannabis for seniors is surging

Peter Grinspoon, MD

August 14, 2026Aug 14, 2026

Seniors are increasingly turning to cannabis to find relief from the suffering and medical indignities of aging. I see this every day in my primary care clinic. Whether it is the grinding discomfort of chronic pain, the anxiety associated with losing friends and abilities, or the soul-crushing misery of insomnia, older adults are discovering that medical marijuana can often do what many of our standard prescriptions cannot. They are finding …

What to expect on weight-loss medication, beyond the scale

Patience C. Ennis

August 13, 2026Aug 13, 2026

I have been a registered nurse for more than thirty years. I am also a bariatric surgery patient and a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) user. I thought that combination would put me in a good position when I started treatment. I…

I have been a registered nurse for more than thirty years. I am also a bariatric surgery patient and a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) user.

I thought that combination would put me in a good position when I started treatment. I understood medications and adverse effects. I knew hydration, nutrition, and maintaining strength mattered, and that success could not be measured only by the scale. Even so, I found myself working …

Prescription drug suicide risk is still being hidden

Martha Rosenberg

August 12, 2026Aug 12, 2026

What if you were an MD/researcher at a top 10 medical school who came face-to-face with a lethal side effect to a popular drug? But, when you tried to reveal it, you were engulfed by a legal and professional character assassination campaign that included threats against your academic position and journal publishing history, physical surveillance by private investigators, and even a home break-in?

That is the basic plot of the newly …

3 realms every drug development leader must bridge

Olumuyiwa Bamgbade, MD

August 11, 2026Aug 11, 2026

Pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) has never lacked scientific ambition. The more challenging issue is transforming good science into programs that operate efficiently, address the right questions, and ultimately enhance patient care. This necessitates a different type of R&D leader.…

Traditional research leadership often emphasizes depth in a scientific discipline. While that expertise is crucial, modern drug development is no longer a series of isolated scientific tasks; it is a …

BPC-157 is promising but unproven, a surgeon warns

Marc Arginteanu, MD

August 11, 2026Aug 11, 2026

Decades in the operating room have taught me that the brain is akin to a spiderweb: fragile, interconnected pathways. When trauma or disease hits neural tissue, our toughest battle is protecting blood flow, controlling swelling, and keeping cells alive under…

This synthetic 15-amino-acid peptide mimics a tough protective protein found naturally in human gastric juice. Unlike …

GLP-1 weight rebound: We have seen this before

Farid Sabet-Sharghi, MD

August 4, 2026Aug 4, 2026

We are living through a massive, rapid shift in how we approach human health, and as I watch the excitement surrounding the new generation of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists, I can’t help but see a familiar ghost in the room. It feels exactly like the early days of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) revolution, a time when we were all so eager for a solution that we sometimes overlooked …

Drugs and prescribing

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