Long ignored, the national problem of prescription narcotic drug overuse and abuse finally gained prominence last year. Now, an eye-opening lawsuit has been filed against pharmaceutical manufacturers by local government. Last month, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, the California counties of Orange and Santa Clara sued Actavis, Endo Health Solutions Inc., Johnson &….
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Health-Care Workers Should Undergo Drug Testing
Why aren’t doctors — and other health-care workers — drug tested? It’s a good question, and the title of a recent commentary published in the New York Times. The authors, Daniel R. Levinson and Erika T. Broadhurst, inspector general and special agent, respectively, for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), argue for….
Continue ReadingFeds Propose Tighter Regulations on E-Cigarettes
Last year, our blog “We Don’t Know Enough About Electronic Cigarettes” outlined how the lack of information about these increasingly popular nicotine delivery systems makes it impossible to determine, among other things, if they help people quick smoking tobacco and what are their side effects for users or bystanders. Now, the FDA wants to scrutinize….
Continue ReadingMore Bad News About Smoking
It has been 50 years since the surgeon general’s world-rocking report on the hazards of smoking, and last week another report from the same source, “The Health Consequences of Smoking – 50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General,” piled on yet more bad news. As summarized by USAToday.com, the report concludes that….
Continue ReadingFeds Demand Stronger Warning on Opioid Labels, But Is It Enough?
Every day in the U.S., 100 people die from drug overdoses. Many drugs are abused, but as documented by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there’s an epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse. Nearly 3 in 4 prescription drug overdoses are caused by these narcotics, known as opioid pain relievers. Since 1999, the sale….
Continue ReadingWe Don’t Know Enough About Electronic Cigarettes
You’ve probably seen people puffing on what look like fat, fancy pens, and exhaling what looks like smoke, then vapor that disappears faster than smoke would. They’re electronic cigarettes-e-cigarettes-that offer nicotine but not smoke, and they’re increasingly popular among smokers who want the pleasure of their habit but not the ill health effects, and those….
Continue ReadingFinding Better Doctors by Tracking Prescribing Habits
When you need a prescription drug, often your doctor has a choice. What’s best for one patient with your condition might not be best for you-choosing the best drug is a matter of problem-solving, of matching a person’s variables-age, gender, allergies, other health issues, etc.-with the drug most likely to provide benefit with minimal risk….
Continue ReadingCDC Says Doctors Overprescribe Painkillers
It’s often a reflexive response: When we hurt, we take a pill for relief. Last week, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said, essentially, we have gone too far. By “we,” he means patients and doctors. As described by the Los Angeles Times, Frieden criticized doctors for….
Continue ReadingDoctors Advocate for Doctor Drug and Alcohol Testing
Some professions require all job candidates to pass drug tests, and some employers subject employees to random testing. Three physicians have written a medical journal article, “Identification of Physician Impairment,” advocating that hospitals also randomly test physicians for drug and alcohol use. Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Julius Cuong Pham,….
Continue ReadingSuggested Reading: Several New Takes on the Dangers of Prescription Drugs
Sometimes, we read an article or book about health, medicine and/or patient safety that’s fascinating but too long to summarize fairly in a blog post. So here’s a shout-out to a few recent stories you might want to look up, on a common theme. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drug….
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