Recent Postings

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gepants, more formally known as small-molecule calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonists, are a new class of migraine drug that work by blocking the transmission of pain signals caused by the headaches. Because adequate long-term data are not available on safety and no study has directly established that gepants are safer and more effective than other types of migraine drugs, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has classified them as Do Not Use For Seven Years.

The editor’s column discusses the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s long-overdue ban on Red Dye No. 3, which has been known since the 1980s to cause cancer in male laboratory rats exposed to high levels of the dye.

Learn about a new observational study from British Columbia, Canada showing that methadone and buprenorphine-naloxone are similarly effective to treat opioid use disorder but that patients treated with methadone are at lower risk of discontinuing treatment.

The diuretic (water pill) spironolactone reduces the risk of death and cardiovascular complications in patients with severe heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (ineffective heart muscle contraction). A new study finds, however, that routine use of spironolactone is not beneficial after an acute heart attack to reduce deaths or major cardiovascular complications.The diuretic (water pill) spironolactone reduces the risk of death and cardiovascular complications in patients with severe heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (ineffective heart muscle contraction). A new study finds, however, that routine use of spironolactone is not beneficial after an acute heart attack to reduce deaths or major cardiovascular complications.

Learn about the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine, its effectiveness and adverse events, and the importance of receiving at least one 2024-2025 mRNA vaccine. Persons who are moderately to severely immunocompromised and those over 65 years of age are especially encouraged to be fully vaccinated and receive regular booster vaccinations.

A new guideline funded by the Endocrine Society recommends against empiric vitamin D supplementation to prevent diseases in healthy adults younger than 75 years, although such supplementation may be helpful in other populations, including individuals 75 years of age and older.

The editor’s column discusses three potential reforms for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in addition to eliminating industry user fees: restricting the revolving door between working at the FDA and working in industry, more rigorous marketing standards for medical devices, and more information and increased transparency about the FDA’s regulatory processes.

Laboratory-developed tests — diagnostic products for clinical use that are designed, manufactured and used within a single clinical laboratory — are widely used in medicine. Learn about a new FDA regulation, finalized in 2024, that will allow the agency to increase its authority over laboratory-developed tests to improve their safety and effectiveness.

In September 2024 the FDA announced that all approved immediate-release formulations of the opioid analgesic fentanyl, also known as transmucosal fentanyl, would be removed from the U.S. market by the end of the month. Learn about these risky fentanyl “candy” drugs and why the FDA should never have approved them in the first place.

Xanomeline-trospium (Cobenfy), a recently approved drug for schizophrenia, blocks different nervous system receptors than previous drugs. The clinical trials of xanomeline-trospium were only five weeks in duration and did not compare the drug to second-generation antipsychotic drugs. Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has classified the drug as Do Not Use for Seven Years.