Meds

Big pharma ignores low-cost migraine solution

Meds

May 16, 2024

If you are a fan of pharma, you might want to skip this article. Some pharma enthusiasts will call it a rant. By pharma, I mean avaricious pharmaceutical (a pleonasm) companies collectively. On the other hand, those of you who treat acute migraines will learn of a highly effective, innovative, inexpensive, and relatively safe way to help many of your migraineurs. Those of you who believe that pharma is interested …

AvertD: Can a simple test help reduce opioid addiction?

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

May 8, 2024

When I heard about the new AvertD genetic test, pronounced like “averted,” I was compelled to contact the CEO of SOLVD Health, the maker of AvertD, and ask him to answer some of my questions. To my surprise, he was willing to do so, and here is what I learned from the training documents that will be mandatory for all prescribing MDs.

First, AvertD is not for use in patients receiving …

Venture-backed telemental health care companies are creating a new opioid epidemic

Tamir Aldad, MD, MBA

Meds

April 19, 2024

More Americans are seeking mental health care than ever before, but many people receiving treatment have never met their psychiatrist in person—or even at all.

Telemedicine has been growing in popularity for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic sent tele-health care utilization rates through the roof. Now, after sharp increases brought by COVID-19 lockdowns, American telehealth utilization has stabilized at levels a staggering 38 times higher than before the …

GLP-1 medications like Wegovy are effective metabolic health tools for teens with insulin resistance

Karla Lester, MD

Meds

April 17, 2024

Lizzie is a 13-year-old with a great sense of humor.

She tells it like it is, especially to her Mom, Jackie, who admits to being a bit of an Almond Mom (the parent who is stuck in a weight-focused diet culture). Jackie leads a very healthy lifestyle and has never had to deal with being overweight. Jackie is different from other Moms I work with because she isn’t telling me that …

Elite access vs. public scrutiny: Medication disparities exposed

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

April 16, 2024

A recent New York Times opinion piece detailed a lack of available pain medications. While the DEA claims that it is not purposefully restricting legitimate medication availability, even the names of its own operations belie this statement. On Halloween 2023, the DEA launched Operation “Bottleneck,” serving immediate suspension orders to six large pharmaceutical supply companies. These companies were accused of having failed to account for “a million doses” of …

Too many older adults are taking risky sedative medications

Wendy Levinson, MD and Christine Soong, MD

Meds

April 14, 2024

A recent investigation in Quebec uncovered a concerning trend: benzodiazepines — medications commonly used for sleep or anxiety — are being overprescribed. This investigation has prompted the Quebec College of Physicians to closely examine the usage of these medications.

But this issue extends beyond Quebec’s borders; across Canada, these medications are being prescribed at alarming rates.

Benzodiazepines and other sedatives are often prescribed to older adults aged 65 and up for …

Saving lives with naloxone: perspectives from the frontline

David I. Deyhimy, MD

Meds

April 14, 2024

According to a recent report by the Stanford-Lancet Commission on the North American Opioid Crisis, “more than 600,000 people in the USA and Canada have died from opioid overdose since 1999, and a staggering 1.2 million more are estimated to die due to overdose by 2029.”

The opioid crisis has reinforced hard lessons learned in earlier health crises. Chief among those is that we need multiple strategies if we are going …

How Enhanced Recovery After Surgery solves our opioid problems

Amy Baxter, MD

Meds

March 28, 2024

In retrospect, we were an addicted nation waiting to happen. Not from a self-indulgent culture, not from an unwillingness to suffer hardship, nor any of the generational criticisms of lack of grit. Our opioid crisis derives from an impatient culture that fears loss of health more than health care profit. With pain as most people’s proxy for health, we were …

Topoisomerase inhibitors and chronic pain

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

March 23, 2024

Topoisomerase inhibitors emerged in the American medical landscape in 1971, thanks to the discovery by Dr. Jim Wang of the E. coli omega protein. Topoisomerase I, an enzyme identified by Dr. Wang, plays a crucial role in DNA unwrapping from supercoiling. Supercoiling involves tightly wrapping DNA for storage and protection, requiring unwrapping for reading, a process in which topoisomerase is indispensable.

Topoisomerase comprises two main types, aptly named types I and …

Off-label prescriptions, side effects, and lawsuits: Navigating ethical and legal dilemmas

M. Bennet Broner, PhD

Meds

March 23, 2024

A recent TV advertisement attempted to recruit clients for a class action suit against a pharmaceutical manufacturer (PM) for a medication side effect (SE). The “cause of action” was unstated: was it the side effect’s existence or that the company failed to emphasize its severity?

The SE was acknowledged not only by the company but also the FDA, which nonetheless approved the medication (RX), determining that its benefits outweighed the side …

DEA overreach: a threat to doctors’ freedom in American medicine

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

March 19, 2024

Today, doctors’ liberty and property are at risk when they choose to treat a patient. Not because of some new law but because of the misapplication of old ones. The current opioid panic has essentially given the DEA free rein to target any physician whose medical practice they disagree with. This has created a serious problem in American medicine and a unique danger to health care providers in this country. …

The opioid crisis: profits, lawsuits, and pharmaceutical influence

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

February 29, 2024

The absolute belief in a vast conspiracy is often associated with an unbalanced mind. People suffering from some forms of mental illness are prone to these beliefs, seeing the invisible hand of the CIA behind the music choices on their radio stations. But that’s not always the case. Dr. Andrew Wakefield was born in 1956 and completed his medical degree in 1981, becoming a fellow of the Royal College of …

Where do they come up with all those goofy names for prescription drugs, anyway?

Doug Bremner, MD

Meds

February 22, 2024

An excerpt from Pills, Shills, and the Psychiatry Wars: Musings from the Drug Safety & Healthcare News Blog.

I was spreading pine straw around the bushes in my yard in Atlanta, Georgia, when I started thinking about … you guessed it! The goofy names that drug companies come up with for their prescription drugs.

Folks in the blue states are often interested in the customs of us red state folks since …

Beyond opioids: a new hope for chronic pain relief

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

February 21, 2024

Opioids work through the mu opiate receptors throughout the body and brain, dampening pain signals being sent through the peripheral nervous system and spinal cord. It also acts on the ventral tegmental area, causing the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, creating a sensation of euphoria. It is this euphoric effect that seems to be most related to addiction potential. Opiates mimic our endogenous endorphins and have been used …

The unseen battle: America’s veterans and the crisis of chronic pain

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

February 16, 2024

Since the Civil War, there have been seventy-four wars and conflicts America has fought in. But as bad as previous wars had been, there has never been anything in American history like the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. While America’s direct intervention against Germany and Japan lasted less than five years, the war on terror went on for decades. Extended time in extreme circumstances will cause extreme adaptations in the human …

Can we finally say goodbye to opioids? There may be new pain relief on the horizon.

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

February 13, 2024

In an article I recently wrote about a new calcium channel-blocking medication that could be effective in treating central chronic pain, I mentioned that medications like lidocaine block sodium channels to prevent the transmission of pain through the peripheral nervous system. I also said that these medications have limited use, usually just in the ER, because they are short-acting and injected, though there is a lidocaine patch that some …

Now is a good time to reassess your medications with your clinician

Paula Rochon, MD, Jerry Gurwitz, MD, and Lisa McCarthy, PharmD

Meds

February 12, 2024

Now that we are embarking on a new year, many of us take on annual resolutions with a focus on diet and exercise. Overlooked is another important way to improve our health: increasing awareness of our medications.

Nearly 4 in 10 adults over the age of 65 living in the United States are prescribed five or more medications. Sometimes these medications are necessary. But sometimes, they may need adjusting or …

Gene therapy breakthroughs: a new era in genetic disorder treatment

Akshat Jain, MD

Meds

February 4, 2024

In a significant leap forward for medical science, recent breakthroughs in gene therapy are ushering in a new era of treatment for various human diseases. The field of gene therapy, which involves manipulating or introducing genetic material into a person’s cells to treat or prevent disease, has seen remarkable advancements, with several gene therapy drugs receiving approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Gene therapy has emerged as a groundbreaking …

Gene therapies for chronic pain?

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

February 1, 2024

Gene therapy is starting to come into its own, and it will change medicine more profoundly than anything that came before. Just like when antibiotics were discovered almost exactly a century ago, we are on the cusp of another revolution in medicine. One that is orders of magnitude greater than antibiotics.

Recently, in China, five of six children born with an autosomal recessive otoferlin deficiency deafness were cured by the injection …

Read more…

Gene therapies for chronic pain?

Intralymphatic immunotherapy: a breakthrough approach for allergies

Amber Patterson, MD & Kara Wada, MD & Tiffany Owens, MD

Meds

January 28, 2024

Are you or a loved one constantly battling the frustrating symptoms of seasonal or year-round allergies? You are not alone; millions around the globe are affected by sneezing, itchy, watery red eyes, stuffy, runny noses, and headaches. Avoidance of triggers and medications may provide temporary relief, but for those seeking a longer-lasting or more natural solution, immunotherapy (IT) can be life-changing. IT provides sustained benefits of decreased symptoms and medication …

Meds

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