Researchers at Duke Health are fine-tuning a test that can determine whether a respiratory illness is caused by infection from a virus or bacteria so that antibiotics can be more precisely prescribed. A release from Duke reports that the team of infectious disease and genomics experts has developed what they call gene signatures, patterns that… Continue reading A Test for Whether Antibiotics Are Needed
Category: prescription medicines
5 Tips for Getting Smarter About Medications in 2016
With 4 in 10 Americans regularly taking a prescription medication and nearly $260 billion spent by consumers on prescriptions in 2014, expert pharmacist Dr. Linda Bernstein, a spokesperson for FamilyWize, is offering the following tips to help consumers get healthier with their medications in 2016: Know what medicine you are taking and why you are taking it:You should know at… Continue reading 5 Tips for Getting Smarter About Medications in 2016
Doctors Should Prescribe Generic Medications Whenever Possible
All clinicians should prescribe generic medications whenever possible as a way to improve adherence to therapy and clinical outcomes while containing costs, the American College of Physicians (ACP) advises in a paper published November 24th 2015 in Annals of Internal Medicine. A release from ACP quotes ACP President Wayne J. Riley, MD, MPH, MBA, MACP… Continue reading Doctors Should Prescribe Generic Medications Whenever Possible
The Latest on Pain Relievers: Answers from the FDA
Here, a Q & A with Sharon Hertz, Deputy Director of FDA’s Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia, and Rheumatology Products, who has been with FDA for 15 years. Dr. Hertz graduated from SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, N.Y., and completed her residency in neurology at SUNY Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn. This Q&A reflects the… Continue reading The Latest on Pain Relievers: Answers from the FDA
Teaching Clinicians Safe Opioid Prescribing
Educating clinicians on how to prescribe opioids safely can help decrease opioid misuse among chronic pain sufferers. That’s the finding of research done at Boston University Medical Center and published online in August 2015 in the journal Pain Medicine. The study confirms that education can empower clinicians to make more informed clinical decisions about initiating,… Continue reading Teaching Clinicians Safe Opioid Prescribing
What Medicines Should You Take for Gout?
Gout, one of the most painful forms of arthritis, occurs when uric acid builds up in the body. According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, this buildup can lead to sharp uric acid crystal deposits in joints, often in the big toe; deposits of uric acid (called tophi) that look… Continue reading What Medicines Should You Take for Gout?
5 Potentially Dangerous Medications in People 65 and Older
It’s no secret that our bodies change over time, but what you may not realize is that these changes can affect the way some drugs work in our bodies. In fact, by the time we hit 65, some drugs—whether prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) — may act differently in your body, but you might actually think… Continue reading 5 Potentially Dangerous Medications in People 65 and Older
Mixing Medications and Dietary Supplements Can Endanger Your Health
When you take prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) medications, do you take also a vitamin, mineral, or other dietary supplements? Have you considered whether there is any danger in mixing medications and dietary supplements? There could be, says Robert Mozersky, a medical officer at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “Some dietary supplements may increase the… Continue reading Mixing Medications and Dietary Supplements Can Endanger Your Health
Generic Transplant Drugs as Good as Brand Name
A University of Cincinnati (UC)-led research team has found that generic formulations of tacrolimus, a drug used post-transplant to lower the risk of organ rejection, are just as good as the name-brand version. The findings were presented Sunday, May 3rd 2105 at the American Transplant Congress annual meeting in Philadelphia by lead investigator Rita Alloway,… Continue reading Generic Transplant Drugs as Good as Brand Name
Low-Cost Drug Not Being Prescribed to Pre-Diabetes Patients
There’s a low-cost drug that can help prevent the onset of diabetes, but few doctors are prescribing it, according to a new study. The study, from investigators at UCLA, was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. It found that only 3.7 percent of adults with pre-diabetes were given metformin during a… Continue reading Low-Cost Drug Not Being Prescribed to Pre-Diabetes Patients
New Life for Traditional Antibiotics
“First-line” antibiotics could be brought back to fight against the increasing number of drug-resistant pathogens, according to a new study. A computer simulation created by Hannah Meredith, a biomedical engineering graduate fellow at Duke University, revealed that a regimen based on a pathogen’s recovery time could eliminate an otherwise resistant strain of bacteria. In theory,… Continue reading New Life for Traditional Antibiotics
Some Psychiatric Meds Dangerous for Dementia Patients
Psychiatric drugs prescribed to patients suffering from Alzheimer’s or other kinds of dementia appear to be riskier than previously believed, researchers say. The finding, published in JAMA Psychiatry, is adds to the growing body of troubling evidence that has been found in researching the use of antipsychotic drugs as a treatment for dementia-related hallucinations, delusions,… Continue reading Some Psychiatric Meds Dangerous for Dementia Patients
Off-Patent Antibiotics Effectively Combat MRSA Skin Infections
Researchers funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have found that two common antibiotic treatments work equally well against bacterial skin infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) acquired outside of hospital settings. Known as community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA, these skin infections have been… Continue reading Off-Patent Antibiotics Effectively Combat MRSA Skin Infections
A New Discovery About a Wonder Drug
Researchers have discovered a new way in which the wonder drug penicillin fights infections. Penicillin, discovered in 1928, works by attacking enzymes that build the bacterial wall cell. Once the medicine gets through that wall, the bacteria die. Over the years, though, resistance to antibiotics has developed and is now a serious health threat. But… Continue reading A New Discovery About a Wonder Drug
Safety Concerns About New Drugs
The authors of a study published in the August 2014 issue of Health Affairs contend that when the FDA approval process for medications changed in 1992 with the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), which allowed the FDA to collect fees to expedite drug approvals, the new process may have led to the release of drugs before they could be adequately evaluated for safety issues.