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WORST PILLS, BEST PILLS NEWSLETTER ARTICLES

Search results below include Worst Pills, Best Pills Newsletter Articles where your selected drug is a secondary subject of discussion.

Question & Answer
November 2020
In this month’s Question & Answer feature, we respond to a reader’s question asking about our recommended alternatives to the opioid analgesic tramadol (CONZIP, ULTRACET, ULTRAM), which we have designated as Do Not Use.
Gabapentinoid Drug Use Is Exploding Despite Poor Safety and Efficacy Profiles
October 2020
Marked increases in the prescribing of the gabapentinoids gabapentin and pregabalin, particularly for uses not approved by the FDA (so-called off-label uses), indicate that these drugs are widely overprescribed and misused in the U.S. In this article, we review three recent studies that characterized the growth and extent of gabapentinoid overuse during the past two decades.
Selling Amphetamine-Emblazoned Athletic Shirts Versus Overselling Amphetamines: A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs
January 2014
When the manufacturer of the amphetamine ADDERALL criticized a Los Angeles boutique for selling T-shirts emblazoned with the drug’s name, it stated that the shirts “glorify[y] the misuse and diversion of a federally controlled prescription drug.” But the pharmaceutical company itself was cited by the Food and Drug Administration for overpromoting the drug to increase sales.
Overusing Medications Can Cause Headaches
March 2013
What kind of headache is not relieved by pain medications but actually caused by their frequent overuse? The article describes which painkillers can cause medication overuse headaches (MOH) when used too frequently over specified durations of time.
Drug Mix-Ups
June 2011
This article lists 355 drugs with names that are often confused with similar-sounding drug names. Find out what you can do to prevent getting the wrong drug.
Codeine: The Drug With Multiple Personalities
June 2008
Codeine is routinely converted to morphine in the body in order for it to be an effective painkiller. The metabolism of codeine to morphine takes place through the actions of an enzyme in the liver. The article explains how various drugs and or a person's genetic makeup can greatly influence the conversion of codeine to morphine, making its pain-relieving properties too week if not enough conversion occurs and resulting in what amounts to an overdose at the recommended dose if the conversion to morphine is too rapid. Fourteen drugs that inhibit the conversion to morphine are listed in the article.
Adverse Drug Reactions Cause 1.4 Million Emergency Room Visits in 2004 and 2005
January 2007
An estimated 701,547 patients were treated for adverse drug reactions in emergency rooms each year in 2004 and 2005, totaling 1.4 million visits to the emergency room. Of these, an estimated 117,318 patients were hospitalized each year. According to the study. 18 drugs were each, either independently or in combination with other drugs, implicated in one percent or more of the estimated adverse drug events. These drugs are listed in the table that accompanies this article along with the annual estimates of adverse drug events.