Medications and prescribing

Are you neurodivergent or just bored?

Are you neurodivergent or just bored?

November 18, 2025Nov 18, 2025

Do you get bored when reading a boring book? Do you struggle to concentrate when you haven't had enough sleep? Do you have difficulty following instructions, make careless mistakes and forget to return calls? Are you sometimes the last one…

Do you get bored when reading a boring book? Do you struggle to concentrate when you haven’t had enough sleep? Do you have difficulty following instructions, make careless mistakes and forget to return calls? Are you sometimes the last one to “get” a joke?

You may be “suffering from” with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and are “neurodivergent” and “on the spectrum.”

Today’s ASD “neurodivergence” craze has spawned at least two lucrative and …

Read more…

Pharmacy benefit manager reform vs. direct drug plans

Leah M. Howard, JD

November 6, 2025Nov 6, 2025

Much has been made of the move by President Donald Trump and the pharmaceutical industry to offer direct-purchase drug programs at heavily discounted rates. Following the announcement of these new programs and TrumpRx, we’ve heard news and opinion pieces from every major outlet, but missing in the conversation is one of the most important voices: the patient. Key questions remained unanswered:

“What does this mean for my care?”

“Does this work with …

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Conditions and diseases

Why pharmacist burnout is a patient safety issue

Muhammad Abdullah Khan

October 5, 2025Oct 5, 2025

Behind every prescription safely dispensed stands a pharmacist making dozens of clinical decisions under mounting pressure. What happens when that pressure becomes unbearable? When the professionals who are the last line of defense against medication harm are pushed to their…

The invisible epidemic

Surveys and workplace reports repeatedly show that large numbers of pharmacists experience burnout …

How India-Pakistan tensions could break America’s generic drug pipeline

Adwait Chafale

September 25, 2025Sep 25, 2025

With over 270 active drug shortages and growing global instability, the United States must protect itself from a worsening crisis in cancer care. The fragile supply of generic chemotherapy drugs like cisplatin, which is important for treating bladder, lung, and testicular cancer, could collapse if geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan escalate further. To preserve this diminishing supply, the U.S. must reduce its overreliance on Indian pharmaceutical manufacturing and …

Drug giants face suit over hidden cancer risks

September 20, 2025Sep 20, 2025

Bridgett Brown, a resident of California, developed breast cancer from using brand-name and generic versions of the antipsychotics Risperdal (risperidone) and Zyprexa (olanzapine) says a new lawsuit from the Wisner Baum law firm. Neither Brown or her two prescribing physicians…

Neither Brown or her two prescribing physicians knew or “had reason to know” that the drugs could cause breast cancer since the drug manufacturers “obfuscated and disclaimed such risks while promoting these dangerous, expensive drugs over safer, …

The diseconomics of scale: How Indian pharma’s race to scale backfires on U.S. patients

Adwait Chafale

September 16, 2025Sep 16, 2025

Why Indian pharmaceutical companies run the risk of driving up U.S. consumer drug prices when scaling too quickly: the diseconomics of scale. Why the U.S. looks to India as a global supply chain hub for medications India's pharmaceutical industry saves…

Why Indian pharmaceutical companies run the risk of driving up U.S. consumer drug prices when scaling too quickly: the diseconomics of scale.

Why the U.S. looks to India as a global supply chain hub for medications

India’s pharmaceutical industry saves U.S. consumers billions, but scaling too fast is a mistake. Premature scaling through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is not just unsustainable, it is reckless and a recipe for inefficiency, error, and rising …

How drug companies profit by inventing diseases

September 4, 2025Sep 4, 2025

Funding from direct-to-consumer (DTC) "ask your doctor" drug ads has captured news media outlets and all but blocked important health stories like these. Read on. 1. "Hormone replacement therapy" (HRT) is back. It is said that those who forget the…

Funding from direct-to-consumer (DTC) “ask your doctor” drug ads has captured news media outlets and all but blocked important health stories like these. Read on.

1. “Hormone replacement therapy” (HRT) is back.

It is said that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, and nowhere is this more evident than the re-marketing of HRT to menopausal women who do not remember the first debacle (which increased the risk …

Every medication error is a system failure, not a personal flaw

Muhammad Abdullah Khan

August 29, 2025Aug 29, 2025

Every 24 hours, at least one person dies from a preventable medication error. Every hour, countless others suffer complications that could have been avoided with better systems. Yet despite billions invested in health care technology and training, these numbers are…

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: We have been solving the wrong problem.

For decades, health care has treated medication errors like individual failures — a tired nurse, a distracted doctor, a …

Conditions and diseases

mRNA post vaccination syndrome: Is it real?

Harry Oken, MD

August 15, 2025Aug 15, 20252

This past week, an unhinged man in Atlanta committed an atrocity. He went to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) with five guns and killed a policeman. He blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, and it…

Since January 2022, I have been interacting with national experts on a clinical problem that has hit …

Why kratom addiction is the next public health crisis

Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD

July 29, 2025Jul 29, 2025

In recent years, kratom, a botanical herb indigenous to Southeast Asia, has surged in popularity across the United States. Marketed aggressively online and sold openly in vape shops, convenience stores, and specialty herbal outlets, kratom is often portrayed as a…

In recent years, kratom, a botanical herb indigenous to Southeast Asia, has surged in popularity across the United States.

Marketed aggressively online and sold openly in vape shops, convenience stores, and specialty herbal outlets, kratom is often portrayed as a natural remedy, an herbal escape from chronic pain, anxiety, and opioid withdrawal. But beneath the alluring veneer of wellness and relief lies a dangerous, largely unregulated substance capable of causing severe …

Pharmacists are key to expanding Medicaid access to digital therapeutics

Amanda Matter

July 11, 2025Jul 11, 2025

More than 78 million Americans rely on Medicaid or CHIP for their health care. Yet many still cannot access FDA-approved digital therapeutics because their state does not include them in covered benefits. Prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) are software-based treatments authorized…

Prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) are software-based treatments authorized by the FDA. They are delivered through smartphones or tablets and are used to manage conditions such as substance use disorder, ADHD, diabetes, and chronic insomnia. For people who face long …

From stigma to science: Rethinking the U.S. drug scheduling system

Artin Asadipooya

July 3, 2025Jul 3, 2025

In 1971, President Nixon initiated a battle that would reshape the United States: The War on Drugs. As a key part of that campaign, he enacted the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which authorized the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to categorize modern-day controlled substances into 5 “schedules” based on their “medical use, potential for abuse, and safety or dependence liability.” They range from Schedule I, which are substances with no …

How drugmakers manipulate your health from diagnosis to prescription

June 27, 2025Jun 27, 2025

It is said that 57 percent of U.S. doctors receive drugmaker/industry funding and 66 percent of U.S. adults are now on prescription drugs. Any correlation? Drug ads now cast such a wide "symptom net," comedian Chris Rock said he expected…

It is said that 57 percent of U.S. doctors receive drugmaker/industry funding and 66 percent of U.S. adults are now on prescription drugs. Any correlation?

Drug ads now cast such a wide “symptom net,” comedian Chris Rock said he expected to hear, “Do you fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning? You might be suffering from ….”

Here are six ways drugmakers hijack U.S. medicine

Diagnosing. Once upon a time …

The food-drug interaction risks your doctor may be missing

Frank Jumbe

June 24, 2025Jun 24, 2025

As a health care professional, I've often observed how one critical aspect of medication safety and efficacy gets overlooked: food-drug interactions. Every day, we prescribe and dispense powerful medications — but what patients eat alongside those medications can completely alter…

As a health care professional, I’ve often observed how one critical aspect of medication safety and efficacy gets overlooked: food-drug interactions.

Every day, we prescribe and dispense powerful medications — but what patients eat alongside those medications can completely alter their effects.

This isn’t just a pharmacy concern. It’s a multidisciplinary issue that deserves greater attention from physicians, pharmacists, and patient educators.

The physician’s role: Asking the right questions

We often do a solid …

Reassessing the impact of CDC’s opioid guidelines on chronic pain care [PODCAST]

June 11, 2025Jun 11, 2025

Internal medicine and pediatric physician Charles LeBaron discusses his article "How the CDC's opioid rules created a crisis for chronic pain patients." Charles discusses the 2016 CDC opioid guideline, initially framed as a solution to over-prescription and overdose deaths, and…

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Internal medicine and pediatric physician Charles LeBaron discusses his article “How the CDC’s opioid rules created a crisis for chronic pain patients.” Charles discusses the 2016 CDC opioid guideline, initially framed as a solution to over-prescription and overdose deaths, and critically examines its actual impact. He reveals how the guideline, …

Why retail pharmacies are the future of diverse clinical trials

Shelli Pavone

June 10, 2025Jun 10, 2025

The importance of diversity in clinical trials is well-documented, yet unfortunately the lack of diversity still occurs at an alarming rate. As a result, we continue to have less effective treatments, poorer health outcomes, one-size-fits-all medicine that falls short of…

The reason for lack of diversity in clinical trials is similarly known, with language barriers, limited access to health care facilities …

The hidden bias in how we treat chronic pain

Richard A. Lawhern, PhD

May 2, 2025May 2, 20252

As a health care writer and data analyst, I hear frequently from patients who are being denied safe and effective pain care due to unscientific bias on the part of U.S. health care agencies—and sometimes on the part of otherwise once-reputable medical journals. These are among millions of U.S. citizens who are now being deserted by the medical profession.

Thousands, overcome by their pain and depression, have already …

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

Robert Trent

May 1, 2025May 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,…

“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,

…

Why the FDA’s outdated prescription rules hinder access to birth control and naloxone [PODCAST]