Recent Postings

Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has designated the chronic weight-management drug liraglutide (SAXENDA) as <strong>Do Not Use</strong> for all age groups. This article discusses the lack of strong evidence showing long-term, lasting and clinically meaningful benefits that outweigh the drug’s risks, both in obese adolescents and adults.

Robert Steinbrook, M.D., the new Health Research Group Director at Public Citizen, introduces himself as the editor of Worst Pills, Best Pills News.

Patients taking the stomach-acid-suppressing drug rabeprazole (ACIPHEX) should be aware that it has clinically important interactions with many other prescription medications. Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has designated rabeprazole, a protein pump inhibitor, as Limited Use.

Some drugs, including commonly used prescription and over-the counter medications, can cause photosensitivity, increasing the skin’s vulnerability to sunlight. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics are the drug classes with the strongest evidence for photosensitivity.

The seizure medication gabapentin (GRALISE, NEURONTIN) is used to treat postsurgical pain, but that approach is controversial because of concerns about effectiveness and safety. Recent research found that such use is associated with an increased risk of delirium, antipsychotic use and pneumonia in the postsurgical period.

Learn about recent research assessing the risk of withdrawal symptoms following the discontinuation of antidepressants.

The departure of the long-standing director of the Office of Neuroscience in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research — whose office was responsible for the review and accelerated approval of drugmaker Biogen’s aducanumab (ADUHELM) for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease — from the agency is a welcome, but long overdue, development.

Patients taking the antifungal drug voriconazole (VFEND), which is marketed in both oral and injectable forms, should be aware that it has clinically important interactions with many other prescription medications.

Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has designated olanzapine/samidorphan (LYBALVI) as Do Not Use because of questionable effectiveness and concerning safety data, especially because samidorphan use plausibly increases the risk of opioid overdose.

Findings from a recent large-scale, well-designed clinical trial showed no greater benefit of evening dosing over morning dosing of once-daily antihypertensive medications in terms of major cardiovascular outcomes (such as heart attack and stroke).

As seven years have passed since Toujeo’s approval without new major safety concerns being identified, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has now designated it as <strong>Limited Use</strong> — a treatment for diabetes that should be used only if treatment with less concentrated and cheaper forms of insulin have first been tried and found to be inadequate.

In his editor’s column, Dr. Carome explains why the FDA’s new guidance on homeopathic drugs fails to adequately address the public health threat posed by the agency’s decades-long permissive approach to these illegal drug products.

In this article, we discuss the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s recently updated recommendations against the use of menopausal hormone therapy to prevent chronic medical conditions, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, dementia and stroke.

Learn why Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has designated the new heart drug mavacamten as Do Not Use for Seven Years.

Patients taking the commonly prescribed calcium channel blocker felodipine should be aware that it has clinically important interactions with many other prescription medications as well as the dietary supplement St. John’s wort.

In this month’s news brief, we discuss the FDA’s November 2022 Drug Safety Communication about the agency’s ongoing evaluation of the risk of severe and symptomatic hypocalcemia in patients with advanced kidney disease, particularly those on dialysis, who received treatment with denosumab.