Drugs and prescribing

1,242 articles · Since 2007

Articles, page 24

Physicians are being murdered for not prescribing opioids

August 15, 2017Aug 15, 20179

Good pain physicians are dying. Recently, Dr. Todd Graham was shot dead in a parking lot over refusing to prescribe opioids to a man’s wife. Physicians who care deeply and try to do the right thing are being murdered for…

I prescribe very few opioids in my chronic pain practice. I do so in a judicious and safe manner for my patients. I have excellent training, and I …

GOOP and Gwyneth: Blame mainstream media

Arthur L. Caplan, PhD & Timothy Caulfield, LLM

August 9, 2017Aug 9, 2017

It is easy to mock the ridiculous and potentially harmful health advice and product lines promoted by Gwyneth Paltrow and her team at Goop. Sleeping near healing crystals, lugging around jade eggs in the vagina, swilling moon juice, undergoing raw…

Should only infectious disease specialists be allowed to prescribe antibiotics?

Craig Bowron, MD

August 9, 2017Aug 9, 201739

The WHO’s recent announcement of multi-drug resistant strains of gonorrhea raises the specter of a worldwide SuperClap Attack that even the Avengers couldn’t foil. It also comes as yet another ominous reminder of the perils of rampant and indiscriminate antibiotic…

There’s plenty of blame to spread around. True, here in the U.S., consumers can’t buy antibiotics over the counter, but that hasn’t kept physicians and other providers from over-prescribing them …

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Explore the behavioral factors behind antibiotic misuse

Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD

August 1, 2017Aug 1, 2017

None of us wants to live in a world without access to lifesaving antibiotics. No patient should be subject to an allergic reaction or organ dysfunction from these drugs. No one wants to contract a potentially deadly form of diarrhea, claiming roughly 30,000 lives a year in the U.S., that can take hold after antibiotics wipe out healthy gut bacteria.

Yet, every day, patients are prescribed antibiotics that they did …

Are pharma gifts to doctors a red herring?

Brian C. Joondeph, MD

July 31, 2017Jul 31, 20176

Physicians are influenced by marketing. That's no surprise. So are most consumers, as evidenced by television and radio commercials, billboards, pop up ads and targeted ads for drugs on your computer screen. Big Pharma markets not only to physicians, but…

Physicians are influenced by marketing. That’s no surprise. So are most consumers, as evidenced by television and radio commercials, billboards, pop up ads and targeted ads for drugs on your computer screen. Big Pharma markets not only to physicians, but also directly to consumers.

In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Dr. Nicole Van Gronigen made the case that Big Pharma successfully influences physician prescribing behavior via marketing. Specifically, drug …

The oral contraceptive’s PR problem

Shikha Jain, MD

July 27, 2017Jul 27, 20178

Recently in Missouri, a bill was proposed that would ban women on oral contraceptives (OCP) from working. In the world of politics, the use of contraceptives has been discussed ad nauseam, often without medical consideration. As physicians, in order to continue to uphold our Hippocratic Oath: “First do no harm,” it is imperative that we continue to challenge any law that goes against scientific evidence, and our voices must be …

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The oral contraceptive’s PR problem

Why this physician doesn’t prescribe pain medications

Michael Kirsch, MD

July 18, 2017Jul 18, 201715

It may seem strange that a gastroenterologist like me does not prescribe pain medicines. Let me rephrase that. I don’t prescribe opioids or narcotics. I write prescriptions for so few controlled substances that I do not even know my own…

It may seem strange that a gastroenterologist like me does not prescribe pain medicines.

Let me rephrase that. I don’t prescribe opioids or narcotics. I write prescriptions for so few controlled substances that I do not even know my own DEA number. You might think that a gastroenterologist who cares for thousands of patients with abdominal pains would have a heavy foot on the opioid accelerator. But, I don’t. Here’s why.

I …

One and done: a heroin and fentanyl cocktail

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

July 18, 2017Jul 18, 2017

There was her 28-year-old daughter lifeless in an ICU bed. Her name was Tricia, and she had dabbled with drugs since she was 15. As a child, she was artistic, adventurous, and always found excitement with other kids who tended…

There was her 28-year-old daughter lifeless in an ICU bed.

Her name was Tricia, and she had dabbled with drugs since she was 15. As a child, she was artistic, adventurous, and always found excitement with other kids who tended to do risky things. She’d justify their behavior and say they were more fun and had better personalities.

Eventually, her mom and dad moved to a small town thinking it would be …

Don’t blame doctors for medication nonadherence

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

July 9, 2017Jul 9, 201715

The New York Times says nonadherence to prescribed medications is “an out-of-control epidemic” in the U.S. and quotes a review in Annals of Internal Medicine, which found “20-30% of medication prescriptions are never filled, and approximately 50% of medications for…

For example, “a third of kidney transplant patients don’t take their anti-rejection medications, 41% of heart attack patients don’t take …

Behind the scenes of a detox scam

Britt Marie Hermes, ND

July 7, 2017Jul 7, 20173

It is surprisingly easy to sell snake oil. I know, because I’ve done it. In 2014, I helped create and sell The Right Detox. This was a bogus detoxification program that purported to improve anyone’s well-being and perhaps, cure disease. I was the face of the scam. I launched The Right Detox at a spring-time women’s health expo in Tucson, Arizona.

I kicked off my sales-pitch in front of a small …

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Behind the scenes of a detox scam

Pre-authorization is hell. Here’s why.

Matthew Hahn, MD

July 5, 2017Jul 5, 201733

This April, my turn to take the medical board exam rolled back around, necessary every ten years for maintenance of certification. I studied diligently for the better part of three months preceding the test (and I think I did well). It was actually pleasurable to go back over details that I had forgotten and to catch up on newer developments in the field. I realized that I don’t do nearly …

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Pre-authorization is hell. Here’s why.

Ask your physician tough questions about opioids

American Society of Anesthesiologists & Anita Gupta, DO, PharmD

July 3, 2017Jul 3, 201718

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. Alleviating pain has been a primary focus of my career as a physician anesthesiologist. Just as there are physicians who specialize in treating conditions such as cancer, heart…

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

Alleviating pain has been a primary focus of my career as a physician anesthesiologist. Just as there are physicians who specialize in treating conditions such as cancer, heart disease or allergies, there are specialists in treating pain. These physicians complete four years of medical school and further training in a specialty, such as anesthesiology, physical medicine, …

Medication errors haven’t gone away

Jock Hoffman

June 29, 2017Jun 29, 20174

A 10-year analysis of medical malpractice cases indicates that medication errors continue to represent a significant risk to patients and health care providers, despite myriad efforts to eliminate that risk. For events that occurred beginning in 2003 (12 percent) to those from 2012 (12 percent) the proportion of cases alleging a medication error was, essentially, unchanged. Raised awareness, advances in technology, and millions of dollars directed at improving the medication …

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Medication errors haven’t gone away

To solve the overmedication problem, follow the physiatrists

Val Jones, MD

June 26, 2017Jun 26, 20172

Medical school prepares physicians to prescribe medications for prevention and treatment of disease, but little to no time is spent teaching something just as important: de-prescribing. In our current system of auto-refills, e-prescriptions, and mindless “checkbox” EMR medication reconciliation, patients may continue taking medications years after their original prescriber intended them to stop. There is no doubt that many Americans are over-medicated, and the problem …

How a one-time bridging prescription became an every time refill

Fred N. Pelzman, MD

June 11, 2017Jun 11, 20173

At what point, we have to ask ourselves, does a medical error that we do over and over again cease to be an error, and simply become business as usual? At one of the patient safety conferences this week, where…

At what point, we have to ask ourselves, does a medical error that we do over and over again cease to be an error, and simply become business as usual?

At one of the patient safety conferences this week, where we reviewed sentinel events that occurred in the hospital and in the outpatient setting, one of the cases was about a patient who developed an abnormal cardiac rhythm as a result …

Science is the way out of the opioid overdose epidemic. Not stigma.

Andrea Grubb Barthwell, MD & Genie Bailey, MD

June 5, 2017Jun 5, 20174

The opioid overdose epidemic was the centerpiece of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, MD’s West Virginia listening tour recently. While the tour was billed as an opportunity to gain knowledge on the epidemic, his response to…

In response to Herculean state-based and volunteer efforts to keep people alive — not to …

6 tricks that pharmaceutical marketers use

Martha Rosenberg

May 30, 2017May 30, 20174

Long before the Internet and direct-to-consumer advertising, the medical profession tried to reassure people about their health concerns. Remember “take two aspirins and call me in the morning?" Flash forward to today’s online “symptom checkers.” They are quizzes to see…

Long before the Internet and direct-to-consumer advertising, the medical profession tried to reassure people about their health concerns. Remember “take two aspirins and call me in the morning?”

Flash forward to today’s online “symptom checkers.” They are quizzes to see if someone has a certain disease and exhortations to see their doctor even if they feel fine. Once drug makers discovered that health fears and even hypochondria sell drugs, there seems …

Is there a medication that can combat rigid and robotic thinking?

Michael Kirsch, MD

May 29, 2017May 29, 20175

I had an interesting conversation with a patient in the office some time ago. He was sent to me to evaluate abnormal liver blood tests, a common issue for gastroenterologists to unravel. I did not think that these laboratory abnormalities…

I had an interesting conversation with a patient in the office some time ago.

He was sent to me to evaluate abnormal liver blood tests, a common issue for gastroenterologists to unravel. I did not think that these laboratory abnormalities portended an unfavorable medical outcome. Beyond the medical issue, he confided to me a harrowing personal tribulation. Often, I find that a person’s personal story is more interesting and significant than …

Do expired EpiPens still work?

Roy Benaroch, MD

May 24, 2017May 24, 2017

A small study published this month showed that most Epipens retain their potency for at least 4 years after their expiration date. That’s no guarantee, of course. I’d still recommend as a “best practice” that families replace them as they expire. But it’s reassuring to know that they’ll usually be effective even when expired. And using an expired EpiPen is almost certainly better than using nothing …

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Do expired EpiPens still work?

Averting a zombie prescription apocalypse

American College of Physicians & Yul Ejnes, MD

May 23, 2017May 23, 2017

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. One thing about me that even my closest friends are unaware of is that I am a zombie fighter. Unlike the ones in video games, TV series, or…

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

One thing about me that even my closest friends are unaware of is that I am a zombie fighter. Unlike the ones in video games, TV series, or movies, the zombies that I fight in my practice are prescriptions that won’t die. They are prescriptions for discontinued drugs or old medication doses. These “zombie …

Drugs and prescribing

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