The study, which was published in the Journal of Adolescent Healthanalyzed medical claims and pharmacy data from 8,373, 13- to 17-year-olds who visited a clinician for headache, which is a common ailment in adolescents.
Forty-six percent received one prescription for an opioid; 23% got two prescriptions and 29% got three or more prescriptions.
Pharma
Killing Pain: Script by Script
Primary care doctors wrote about 53 million benzodiazepine prescriptions in 2013, roughly four times the number written by psychiatrists, a group that penned 13 million benzo scripts.
Nurse practitioners and physician assistants were close behind with 11 million prescriptions for the drugs, according to data obtained by MedPage Today and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In 2013, non-doctors wrote 30 million opioid prescriptions, compared with 92 million written by primary care doctors that year, according to data provided by IMS Health, a drug market research firm.
In 2010, the most recent year for which data were available, 30% of the 16,651 people who died of an opioid overdose also had taken a benzodiazepine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
via Killing Pain: Script by Script.
The alarming rise of Adderall in two charts
As Drug Deaths Rise, Millions of Narcotic Prescriptions Filled – Oklahoma Watch
As Drug Deaths Rise, Millions of Narcotic Prescriptions Filled | Oklahoma Watch.
State specific statistics for Oklahoma
Drugs That May Cause Memory Loss – AARP
Drugs That May Cause Memory Loss Side Effect – AARP.
Nice article and summary of prescription medications that may cause memory loss as a side effect. Please share this link far and wide with our colleagues.
Testosterone Treatment and MI Risk
Filling a prescription for testosterone therapy was associated with a greater risk of having a nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) in the next 3 months, a large observational study showed.
The risk after a prescription was filled was more than doubled in men 65 and older overall compared with that in the year before the prescription (rate ratio 2.19, 95% CI 1.27-3.77), according to Robert Hoover, MD, ScD, of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues.
The study was limited, however, by the observational design, the use of administrative data that lacked information on indications for treatment, and the inclusion of nonfatal MIs only.
via Study Feeds Concerns About MI Risk With Testosterone Tx.
Acetaminophen Prescription Combination Drug Products with more than 325 mg: FDA Statement – Recommendation to Discontinue Prescribing and Dispensing
ISSUE: FDA is recommending health care professionals discontinue prescribing and dispensing prescription combination drug products that contain more than 325 milligrams (mg) of acetaminophen per tablet, capsule or other dosage unit. There are no available data to show that taking more than 325 mg of acetaminophen per dosage unit provides additional benefit that outweighs the added risks for liver injury. Further, limiting the amount of acetaminophen per dosage unit will reduce the risk of severe liver injury from inadvertent acetaminophen overdose, which can lead to liver failure, liver transplant, and death.
You like your liver? You can keep your liver.
FDA Drug Safety Labeling Changes – December 2013
Safety Information > December 2013.
Memory permitting I will link to this FDA webpage on a regular basis. From my perspective the adverse reactions are the most interesting nuggets of information.
Farxiga (dapagliflozin) – Think Diabetes
The FDA has approved dapagliflozin (Farxiga) for treatment of type 2 diabetes in adults, along with diet and exercise, the agency said in a statement.
The approval comes with strings, however: drugmakers Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca must conduct six post-market studies, which include a cardiovascular outcomes trial in patients with baseline cardiovascular disease risks, a bladder cancer risk trial, an animal study looking at drug-induced urinary flow and bladder tumor promotion, two trials on risks in pediatric patients, and an enhanced pharmacovigilance program to study liver abnormalities and pregnancy outcomes.
FDA and Opioids – WTF?
The U.S. already consumes 99% of the hydrocodone used in the world.
In 2010, Vicodin was the most prescribed medication in the U.S. with 131 million filled prescriptions. That same year, more than 16,000 people died of overdoses from narcotic painkillers, up from about 4,000 in 1999.
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