Meds

Biologics are not small molecules: the case for pre-allergy testing in an era of immune-based therapies

Robert Trent

Meds

May 1, 2025

“Once it’s in your body, there’s no taking it back.”

That’s what the infusion nurse told a friend of mine after administering the injection.

She had just started a biologic medication for an autoimmune condition. Immediately, her body reacted: nausea, then hives, then a terrifying tightening of her throat. She rushed back to the clinic. The IV steroids and Benadryl may have stopped the immediate effects, …

The anesthesia spectrum: Guiding patients through comfort options in oral surgery

Dexter Mattox, MD, DMD

Meds

April 30, 2025

“Will I be asleep or awake during my procedure?” This is the first question many patients ask before oral surgery. It reveals a common misconception: That anesthesia works like a light switch.

It doesn’t.

Anesthesia exists on a spectrum with multiple options that can be tailored to your specific needs, procedure type, and anxiety level.

Beyond all-or-nothing

As an oral …

Functional precision oncology: a game changer in cancer therapy

Chris Apfel, MD, PhD, MBA

Meds

April 22, 2025

Functional precision oncology is taking precision medicine to the next level. It is changing the way we fight cancer by testing a patient’s live tumor outside the body to determine the treatments most likely to work. This approach promises to double cancer response rates, improve survival, and reduce costs. It’s personal, data-driven, and long overdue, yet most cancer centers still don’t offer it.

Even many doctors are unaware that the standard …

Why prescribing medicine to kids scares even experienced doctors

Dr. Damane Zehra

Meds

April 19, 2025

I absolutely hate prescribing medication to children.

I am quite worried when someone asks for my opinion on a sick child. I have some experience treating children during my internship and residency, yet I am pretty uncomfortable.

However, living in a lower middle-income country, where the average man already lives a difficult life due to high health care costs and limited income, health expenditure significantly impacts monthly finances. That is why people …

Why long-acting injectables are transforming schizophrenia care

Richard W. Miller, MD

Meds

April 16, 2025

In recent years, psychiatric care has undergone a shift in the clinical mindset toward medication management for people living with schizophrenia and other chronic mental health conditions. As recognition grows for the breadth and depth of the clinical complexities and psychosocial challenges that patients may face along their diagnostic and treatment journey, there is movement toward ensuring that patients have access to treatment options that integrate their needs and preferences. …

How America became overmedicated—and what we can do about it

Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD

Meds

April 6, 2025

In a revealing snapshot of American mental health, the CDC recently reported that nearly 1 in 4 adults in the United States may be taking psychotropic medications. This staggering number should both draw attention and raise questions. Are we truly addressing the root causes of psychiatric illness, or are we sedating a nation in pain?

As a psychiatrist and internist who has worked at the intersection of …

The FDA’s outdated prescription rules are failing women and opioid users

Jeffrey A. Singer, MD

Meds

March 25, 2025

An excerpt from Your Body, Your Health Care.

Tens of millions of American women—more than four out of five women who have had sexual intercourse—have used oral contraceptives, which are crucial for reducing unwanted pregnancies and the incidence of abortion. Obtaining a physician’s prescription can add up to $200 plus time and inconvenience to the cost of “the pill.” Nearly a third of American women who seek prescriptions for oral …

Big pharma’s grip on health care: time for change

Alisa Berger, MD

Meds

March 25, 2025

Everyone seems so scared of the word government regulation when it comes to health care. Why? In part, this is because those against regulations (everyone making money off health care) make sure to scare laypeople into equating such action with socialism. Fear of concept is not a good argument against regulating monopolies that are bankrupting millions of Americans. Pretty sure most Americans would be happy to have limitations placed on …

Advancing drug discount programs starts with collaboration and clarity

Gavin Magaha, PharmD

Meds

March 8, 2025

The 340B drug discount program was enacted more than 30 years ago to lower the cost of medications so providers could deliver more comprehensive services for vulnerable patients. As care delivery has evolved greatly over that time, the program has not appropriately changed to match it and is no longer effectively meeting its original intent. The program’s rapid growth and misaligned incentives have led to a muddied, complex system with …

The untold truth behind our reliance on prescription medications

Josh Moen, PhD, MPH, PA-C

Meds

February 2, 2025

Recently, while contemplating the AAPA-AMA scope creep debate, I encountered a quote about GLP1-RAs for obesity: “We need to just really think about it as a chronic disease … to make sure that we try to keep that patient in [ongoing] treatment.” Another obesity medicine specialist reinforced this view: “These drugs are indicated by the FDA so that you could be on it for the rest of your life.”

This …

Antipsychotic use has been rising in long-term care homes, but we can do something about it

Sid Feldman, MD and Julie Weir, BSN

Meds

January 31, 2025

As health care providers working in long-term care (LTC), we’ve seen firsthand how antipsychotic medications are prescribed to residents, and why. Antipsychotics are often used to help manage behaviors such as agitation and aggression in older adults living with dementia. They may be helpful for some patients, but antipsychotics can do more harm than good for many, especially when used long-term.

Now a new report has highlighted this as a …

The miracle of immune checkpoint inhibitors: a physician’s unforgettable journey

Richard D. Sontheimer, MD

Meds

January 22, 2025

Even a half-century later, a physician cannot forget the first death of a patient under their care. It happened for me during my postgraduate medical training in the 1970s in an academic medical center hospital in the western half of the United States.

She was a delightful young married woman who was the mother of three small children. She was admitted to the hospital for recurring seizures. Her workup revealed a …

You could soon be taking (or prescribing) a drug developed by AI

Jennifer Bath, PhD

Meds

January 21, 2025

Across industries, artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how we approach innovation, and the life sciences and drug development sectors are no exception. This transformative technology is reshaping the way researchers discover and develop new products, particularly in the quest for groundbreaking treatments. While an AI-derived drug may feel like a distant reality, the integration of cutting-edge science, biomathematics, and computational power is accelerating the pace of discovery and testing. These advancements …

The testosterone surge: Are men chasing solutions or creating new risks?

Scott Selinger, MD

Meds

December 13, 2024

Among men, even before COVID-19, the popularity of testosterone therapy since 2000 likely outpaced the clinical need. There have been a number of proposed reasons for this, such as increased direct-to-consumer marketing for low testosterone treatments and the rise of clinics based around testosterone prescribing hidden under the guise of “men’s health.” Much of this growth was seen from 2000-2013 in older men before a decline around the time the …

Navigating patient transitions following the withdrawal of Oxbryta

Akshat Jain, MD

Meds

November 21, 2024

The withdrawal of Oxbryta (voxelotor) from global markets, announced by Pfizer after a recent data review revealed a rise in deaths and complications, has left sickle cell disease (SCD) patients in a precarious situation. The sudden nature of the announcement caught the patient and physician community off guard, as there was no prewarning. For an already narrow world of options available to people with sickle cell disease, this came as …

Are you taking FDA-unapproved drugs without knowing it?

Martha Rosenberg

Meds

November 6, 2024

If you think the labyrinth of U.S. government agencies and congressional subcommittees is complicated, be grateful you are not a pharmacy owner! Just to get your drugs reimbursed, you must navigate a river of upstream, midstream, and downstream suppliers, health plans and insurers, employers and other payers (including federal and state governments), rebate aggregators, “white and brown baggers,” and an alphabet soup of entities/concepts called things like PSAOs, GPOs, NADACs, …

The hidden medication putting Parkinson’s patients at risk

Rebecca Miller, PhD

Meds

October 14, 2024

At the doctor’s office, in the ER, in the hospital, how many times are you asked about your drug allergies? A lot! And, as a common practice when in the hospital, you’ll even get a red bracelet or something to indicate such. There are strict rules around allergies; from techs to transport to MDs, hospital staff are well-trained to look for these bracelets and to make sure that you don’t …

How drug and soap commercials are manipulating you

Martha Rosenberg

Meds

October 5, 2024

Having worked as a copywriter and creative director at some of the world’s top ad agencies, including McCann Erickson (now McCann Worldgroup), I am vehemently critical of new advertising. Why? I know the tricks and how they manipulate well — think the old TV series Mad Men.

Leading the list of ads that I hate are direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug ads which began in the late 1990s. I am especially critical of …

GMP vs. non-GMP: the hidden truth about your supplements

Alisa Sano, MPH

Meds

September 24, 2024

Suppose you are looking for multivitamin supplements. You pick up two containers of multivitamins and wonder which one you should get. At first glance, they have similar labels, but then you notice that one has a comment indicating that the supplement was manufactured in a registered GMP-compliant facility, and the other does not.

Then you ask yourself the following questions: How much of what ingredients are included in proprietary blends? Where …

Doctors beware: the hidden legal risks of following CME guidelines

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

September 14, 2024

I have a problem with some of the continuing medical education courses offered by large health care institutions, even those like Harvard and Mayo, which have outstanding reputations for evidence-based medicine. That’s because what they teach, although scientifically sound and in line with the Department of Health and Human Services and CDC recommendations, can get you prosecuted and convicted by the DEA. If you get targeted for practicing the way …

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