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July 2025
Intense heat can not only affect mental health and well-being, but heat waves may also cause life-threatening conditions or other injuries, such as accidental falls, and lead to emergency-room visits or hospitalizations. Learn about drugs that are associated with an increased risk of heat injury because they may interfere with the body’s ability to regulate its core temperature or to tolerate heat exposure.
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July 2025
The editor’s column discusses little-noticed cuts to the federal Office for Human Research Protections, which provides oversight of research ethics in clinical trials and helps safeguard participants in research that the Department of Health and Human Services conducts or funds. The cuts have undermined the office’s ability to protect the unpaid volunteers that make medical progress possible.
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July 2025
A fixed-dose combination of metformin and sitagliptin (JANUMET) is one of 15 drugs in the current round of Medicare Part D price negotiations. Learn why Public Citizen’s Health Research Group considers the drug a bad choice for people with type 2 diabetes and has classified it as Do Not Use.
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July 2025
The Food and Drug Administration has extended the approval of esketamine (SPRAVATO), a nasal-spray drug for treatment-resistant depression. In addition to the use of esketamine alongside an oral depressant for adults with treatment-resistant depression, the drug has been approved as a standalone drug for treatment-resistant depression and as an adjunctive therapy for depressive symptoms in people with major depressive disorder who have acute suicidal ideation or behavior. Learn why Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has classified esketamine as a Do Not Use drug.
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July 2025
In January 2025 the FDA approved suzetrigine (JOURNAVX), an oral drug, for treatment of moderate to severe pain in adults. Because the drug has only been compared with hydrocodone/acetaminophen and placebo in short-term clinical studies and its adverse effects are not fully understood, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has classified suzetrigine as Do Not Use for Seven Years.
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June 2025
Survey research shows that less than half of Americans are aware that alcohol consumption can increase cancer risk. Learn about a January 2025 advisory from outgoing U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy about the increased cancer risk associated with alcohol consumption and a February 2025 World Health Organization report indicating that alcohol-attributable cancers cause almost one-third of all alcohol-attributable deaths across the European Union countries.
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June 2025
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a laboratory-grown blood vessel (SYMVESS) that surgeons can use to restore blood flow to avoid an amputation in people who have suffered severe arterial injury to an arm or leg, such as from a gunshot wound. The “From the Editor” column discusses other blood vessels surgeons can use in an emergency, the bioengineered vessel’s serious safety problems, and why the FDA should not have approved it.
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June 2025
The chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma drug fluticasone furoate, umeclidinium and vilanterol (TRELEGY ELLIPTA) is a once-daily, fixed-dose, dry-powder inhaler that contains drugs from three classes of medications that are used to treat these conditions. Learn why we have classified Trelegy Ellipta as Limited Use in patients with severe COPD and inadequately controlled exacerbations on dual-ingredient inhaler therapy and why we recommend that the fixed-dose combination drug not be used for maintenance treatment of asthma until its benefit and long-term safety have been established.
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June 2025
Generalized anxiety disorder is a psychiatric disorder that involves intense and persistent feelings of anxiety that extend well beyond normal worries. A 2025 systematic review from the Cochrane Library found that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) antidepressants are safe and effective treatments for the disorder.
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June 2025
Abnormally high blood glucose (hyperglycemia) is a characteristic of diabetes mellitus. Drug-induced hyperglycemia can occur in individuals with previously normal blood glucose levels and can exacerbate hyperglycemia in people with diabetes. Learn about the drugs that can raise blood glucose levels.
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May 2025
Learn about drugs that can impair your ability to drive safely, such as narcotic pain medications, benzodiazepines and Z-drugs, and certain antihistamines. Other examples of drugs that can interfere with safe driving are antipsychotic, antiseizure and muscle relaxant medications.
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May 2025
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has limited oversight of television advertisements from telehealth companies and online drug promotions from celebrities and other social media influencers. Bipartisan legislation, the Protecting Patients from Deceptive Drug Ads Act, introduced in the Senate in February 2025, would empower the FDA to protect consumers from false and misleading drug promotions by telehealth companies and social medica influencers.
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May 2025
Although approved by the FDA to reverse life-threatening or uncontrolled bleeding from the use of two oral blood thinners, andexanet (ANDEXXA) can also cause serious and life-threatening thromboembolic events. Learn why Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has classified andexanet as a Do Not Use drug and opposed the drug’s conversion from accelerated to full approval.
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May 2025
Patients who take the antipsychotic drug clozapine are at increased risk of neutropenia (low count of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell). Although the FDA is ending the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program for clozapine, patients taking the drug should still have their absolute neutrophil counts monitored at the frequency stated in the drug’s prescribing information.
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May 2025
Nicotinamide, a dietary supplement and a form of vitamin B3, is being tested as an additional way to protect the optic nerve in patients with glaucoma. However, patients who take nicotinamide may be at risk of drug-induced liver damage. The supplement should not be used if you have liver disease or have had liver disease in the past; otherwise, the supplement should only be used in a clinical trial where the liver function of participants is closely monitored.