Drugs and prescribing

1,242 articles · Since 2007

Articles, page 28

Your EpiPen is too expensive. These are your 4 options.

September 5, 2016Sep 5, 20162

EpiPens have gotten crazy expensive, yes: $600 for a two-pack. Here are some alternatives that might help you save a few bucks. 1. Wait a few weeks, and see what Mylan does. Mylan, the company that makes the “EpiPen” brand…

EpiPens have gotten crazy expensive, yes: $600 for a two-pack. Here are some alternatives that might help you save a few bucks.

1. Wait a few weeks, and see what Mylan does. Mylan, the company that makes the “EpiPen” brand of epinephrine auto-injector, has been under a lot of pressure lately to back off their unseemly price gouging. They’ve introduced a savings card that claims to lower your …

A medicine for poor people

Kellie Wilding, MD

September 3, 2016Sep 3, 201615

Last week I had an appointment with one of my well-controlled diabetics. She has been in my care for the last six years. Our usual cheery interaction turned sour when she stated in an accusing tone, “My husband is diabetic, and I talked to his doctor about the medication you have me on. He says it is junk, and he only writes it for poor people, and he doesn’t understand …

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A medicine for poor people

An open letter to Heather Bresch: What is legal is not always ethical

Anonymous

September 3, 2016Sep 3, 201610

Dear Ms. Bresch, I couldn’t help but notice the barrage of negative press you’ve received lately regarding the significant price increases in EpiPens. A 461 percent increase since 2007, to be exact. People who require this medication for themselves or…

Dear Ms. Bresch,

I couldn’t help but notice the barrage of negative press you’ve received lately regarding the significant price increases in EpiPens. A 461 percent increase since 2007, to be exact. People who require this medication for themselves or their children are up in arms about spending over $600 for a twin pack of autoinjectors. Most of these people have life-threatening anaphylaxis if they are exposed to certain allergens. To …

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What physicians can do about EpiPen

Kristen Maguire, MD

September 2, 2016Sep 2, 201655

When I found out my daughter was allergic to peanuts, she was a year old. She couldn’t have cared less. She was smiling and happy, sitting on my lap in the allergist’s office, blissfully unaware of the big red mark on the side of her face. And I was crying and sad, crushed for that moment that the first challenge had been put in her path. I wasn’t sad that she was different, that …

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What physicians can do about EpiPen

Mylan Pharmaceuticals made these 2 critical mistakes

Justin Reno, MD

August 31, 2016Aug 31, 201624

Pharmaceutical companies are brilliant. They make profit off of chemicals that can be potentially life-saving. The list is quite impressive: antibiotics for somebody who would otherwise succumb to sepsis, insulin for someone whose pancreas loses the ability to function, antivirals for chronic viral suppression, antineoplastic agents for somebody whose cells have lost their regulatory mechanisms, just to name a few.

The recipe seems to be quite simple: Charge as much money …

The maker of EpiPen sticks it to patients

Monique Tello, MD

August 31, 2016Aug 31, 201627

Recently, friends of ours had a frightening experience: They were on vacation, and ordered takeout from an unfamiliar restaurant. They specifically asked about peanuts: "Are the egg rolls fried in peanut oil? Our daughter has an allergy." The server replied:…

Recently, friends of ours had a frightening experience: They were on vacation, and ordered takeout from an unfamiliar restaurant. They specifically asked about peanuts: “Are the egg rolls fried in peanut oil? Our daughter has an allergy.”

The server replied: “No, no peanut oil.”

And so they ordered the egg rolls.

Awhile after eating an egg roll, their school-aged child Anna (not her real name) complained of a tummy ache. Then, nausea. They …

The vaccine crisis we’re facing isn’t the one that you think

Peter Ubel, MD

August 16, 2016Aug 16, 2016

We have a vaccine crisis in the this country. Not just the one caused by anti-vaxxers like Jenny McCarthy, scaring Americans away from life-saving childhood vaccines with pseudo-scientific claims about autism. Instead, I’m talking about a bigger crisis, one caused by a dangerously thin supply of vaccines. Wise parents who ignore the blatherings of people like McCarthy may soon arrive at their pediatricians’ offices prepared to vaccinate their children, only …

Benzodiazepine addiction is real. This physician shares his story.

David Mokotoff, MD

July 24, 2016Jul 24, 20169

Say the words, "drug addiction," and most of us think of heroin, alcohol, cocaine, or opiates. However, lurking in the shadows is a less talked about epidemic: addiction to benzodiazepines, commonly known as "benzos." I should know because after taking…

Say the words, “drug addiction,” and most of us think of heroin, alcohol, cocaine, or opiates. However, lurking in the shadows is a less talked about epidemic: addiction to benzodiazepines, commonly known as “benzos.” I should know because after taking a nighttime dose of lorazepam (Ativan) for about ten years; I finally weaned myself off this and all other prescription sleep medications.

About twelve years ago, my father died and then …

How OxyContin taught doctors to trust pills over patients

Anna Reisman, MD

July 24, 2016Jul 24, 201613

Treating pain is a notoriously tricky business. But it’s even harder if the medications on which we rely are inappropriately marketed. Last month, a Los Angeles Times investigation of Purdue Pharma asserted that for years, the company falsely elevated the efficacy of its twice-daily OxyContin, a powerful opioid pain reliever. The Times’ review of evidence — including three decades of court cases, investigations, patient and …

The demise of FluMist is a victory for science

Roy Benaroch, MD

July 21, 2016Jul 21, 20165

Recently, the CDC announced that its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to stop recommending the nasal spray flu vaccine, FluMist, for anyone. Bottom line: it doesn’t work. Though their recommendation against the use of FluMist still has to be approved by the CDC director to make it “official,” it’s pretty much a done deal. The AAP’s president has already endorsed the announcement, too.

Bye, Flumist. We’ll …

Saving billions of dollars in health care: The story of Avastin and Lucentis

Peter Ubel, MD

July 17, 2016Jul 17, 201622

I sometimes worry that my wife Paula won’t be able to see me grow old. Not that I expect to outlive her. She is four years my junior and has the blood pressure of a 17-year-old track star. It’s her eyesight I’m worried about, because she is at risk for a form of blindness called macular degeneration. Paula is the youngest in a long line of redheads, several of whom …

Antibiotics: Maybe it’s time to just say no

Roy Benaroch, MD

July 17, 2016Jul 17, 20164

We’ve heard it before: Antibiotics just don’t work for viral infections. Docs know this, and I think most patients know this, but it’s an addiction we’ve had a hard time shaking. Docs overprescribe because it’s fast, it’s easy, and it…

We’ve heard it before: Antibiotics just don’t work for viral infections. Docs know this, and I think most patients know this, but it’s an addiction we’ve had a hard time shaking.

Docs overprescribe because it’s fast, it’s easy, and it (might) increase patient satisfaction and return visits. That’s led to a cycle of reinforcing expectations from patients — who, after all, keep feeling better after the antibiotics. Of course, they do. …

The pharma-fed doctor and the foundation-fed journalist

Michel Accad, MD

July 16, 2016Jul 16, 201619

In his recent article “Feed Me, Pharma,” ProPublica’s Charles Ornstein has been calling attention to studies showing that the prescribing decisions of doctors are linked to the amount of money that drug companies can bestow on them, usually in the…

I find nothing surprising about that, and Ornstein need not be so scrupulous when he clarifies that “the …

The problem of polypharmacy in psychiatry

Allen Frances, MD

July 14, 2016Jul 14, 2016

Polypharmacy was once the exception in psychiatry; now it seems to have become the rule. Patients frequently are taking 3, 4, even 5 psych meds at one time. And often it’s primary care doctors, not psychiatrists, who are doing the…

Some polypharmacy is rational — e.g., a patient with bipolar disorder who receives the combination of antidepressant and mood stabilizer.

But most polypharmacy is …

Prescription drug savings: You have to know where to look

Miranda Yaver, PhD

July 11, 2016Jul 11, 20164

I don’t want to need it. That is a thought that has been all too familiar to me when I venture on the patient side of health care, an industry that I study as a scholar as well with the…

I don’t want to need it.

That is a thought that has been all too familiar to me when I venture on the patient side of health care, an industry that I study as a scholar as well with the distance of one investigating a foreign land in which they do not intend to become entrenched.

It is a thought that has been all too familiar as I see added to my …

Did Prince die because he had bad doctors?

Peter Ubel, MD

June 30, 2016Jun 30, 201614

Prince died of an opioid overdose. A tragic and avoidable fate but, even more tragically, one that is becoming increasingly common in the United States. Some people who overdose live on the edge of society–homeless and with no access to good medical care. Prince, by contrast, had several mansions and a number of physicians actively involved in his care, physicians aware of his problem with opiates. …

The opioid disaster: Stop criminalizing doctors

Cindy Perlin, LCSW

June 29, 2016Jun 29, 201621

It’s an unmitigated disaster. One hundred million pain patients. Millions addicted to opioids, hundreds of thousands dead. Pain patients abruptly cut off medication they’ve depended on, sometimes for decades, and offered nothing to replace it. Doctors, fearful of prosecution for overprescribing, dropping pain patients like hot potatoes. Pain patients unable to find any doctor that will treat them. Patients turning to heroin when they can’t get their prescription painkillers. Articles …

Why not make antibiotics over the counter?

Dana Corriel, MD

June 27, 2016Jun 27, 20169

Bacteria are rapidly becoming resistant in our antibiotic-loving society. This statement is a fact. We are facing a threat not only to our country, but to the world. I have a proposal to make: over-the-counter antibiotics. (Insert tongue-in-cheek here.) Will…

Bacteria are rapidly becoming resistant in our antibiotic-loving society. This statement is a fact. We are facing a threat not only to our country, but to the world.

I have a proposal to make: over-the-counter antibiotics.

(Insert tongue-in-cheek here.)

Will this help us deal with the falsely popular notion that antibiotics are a cure-all? I don’t know, but here’s something I do. I’ve had patients storm out because I’ve said no, and I …

How Tylenol may relieve both physical and emotional pain

Manoj Jain, MD, MPH

June 26, 2016Jun 26, 20169

Last week, when I stubbed my toe on our family room coffee table, a throbbing pain ensued. Over the next two to three days, as the bruise turned pink and then purple, the pain persisted. During the same time, I…

Last week, when I stubbed my toe on our family room coffee table, a throbbing pain ensued. Over the next two to three days, as the bruise turned pink and then purple, the pain persisted.

During the same time, I had a case of the blues. I am overstressed at work with several staff on vacation, my college-age children had come home and then left to start their internships, and my …

What’s behind the rising cost of insulin?

Peter Ubel, MD

June 15, 2016Jun 15, 201611

She drew the life-saving medication into the syringe, just 10 cc of colorless fluid for the everyday low price of, gulp, several hundred dollars. Was that a new chemotherapy, specially designed for her tumor? Was it a “specialty drug,” to…

The price of many drugs has been on the rise of late, not just new …

Drugs and prescribing

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