The power of drug advertising: Patients often get what they ask for
... no drugs were requested. But the study notes that prescriptions for Paxil accounted for two-thirds of all antidepressant prescriptions given to the Role 2 actors making brand-specific requests. The Role 2 results raise a troubling aspe...Actor-patients' requests for medications boost prescribing for depression
...tapes from the visits, medical charts, and written prescriptions or drug samples. People with major depression manifest several symptoms that, in combination, interfere with the ability to work, study, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities. Such a disabling episode of depression may occur only once but...Journal study suggests many glaucoma patients don't take medication properly
...often than directed One-quarter delayed refilling prescriptions One-fifth failed to fill prescriptions One-fifth stopped taking a medication sooner than prescribed The World Health Organization (WHO) e...Changing medication packages could help patients follow prescriptions, study suggests
...igh blood pressure were more likely to have their prescriptions refilled on time if the medication came in a blist...ister pack with the pill calendar format had their prescriptions refilled on time. Also, the researchers noted that 48 percent of the patients in this group had lowe...Steroid-free regimen with CellCept found comparable to standard therapy in liver transplantation
...t in the United States with more than four million prescriptions filled. CellCept received FDA approval for the prevention of organ rejection in transplanted kidneys in 1995, in hearts in 1998 and in livers in 2000. The FDA approved dosages for CellCept are: for adult kidney transplants, 2 g daily; for pediatric...Within six months, one in three patients fail to take medications as prescribed
...2 months following treatment start on the basis of prescriptions filled. Patients were considered to be taking their drugs as prescribed if they had filled prescriptions sufficient to cover at least 80 percent of days of both classes of medications. A total of 8,406 pa...Study shows adherence to pulmicort respules, results in fewer ER visits in asthmatic children
... who were more adherent (as defined by two or more prescriptions in the one year period) to controller therapy had a decrease in exacerbations (23.2% vs 16.8%), while those less adherent had a smaller decrease (23.1% vs 19.1%). Specifically, patients more adherent to PULMICORT RESPULES therapy had a decrease in e...Personalized immunosuppression with leading organ transplant therapy may optimize patient care
...practice for ten years with more than four million prescriptions filled in the United States. CellCept works to su... in the United States, with more than four million prescriptions written. CellCept received FDA approval for the prevention of organ rejection in kidney transplanta...Post-marketing analysis examines cholesterol-lowering drugs' side effects
... muscle or kidney complications out of 5.2 million prescriptions during the drug's first year, which is an absolute risk of 1 in 35,862. In an accompanying editorial, Scott Grundy, M.D., Ph.D., director of The Center for Human Nutrition and departments of clinical nutrition and internal medicine at UT Southwestern...Statins underprescribed to patients at higher risk of heart disease, Stanford study says
...s in the United States, with more than 126 million prescriptions filled in 2004. Statins reduce the level of cholesterol produced by the liver while boosting the liver's ability to remove LDL cholesterol, the so-called "bad" cholesterol, from the blood. High LDL cholesterol levels increase the risk for heart disea...Despite alternatives, addictive drugs most often prescribed for sleep problems
... two-thirds of those visits resulted in medication prescriptions for a person's sleep difficulties, and three-quarters of those prescriptions were for a benzodiazepine. (Five of the 13 kinds of benzodiazepines on the market in the United Stat...Antibiotic treatment not necessary for majority of children with conjunctivitis
...lion general practice consultations and antibiotic prescriptions every year is substantial. However, parental concern and the current exclusion policy of many schools and nurseries for children with conjunctivitis could make implementation of a change in prescription policy difficult. An education programme and ch...Antibiotics appear to have little benefit for uncomplicated lower respiratory tract infections
...s and acute bronchitis, amounting to 55 percent of prescriptions and costing $726 million per year. A consensus has been made for limiting antibiotic use in acute lower respiratory tract infection. However, recent reviews have come to diverse conclusions about the likely effectiveness of antibiotics and a recent r...Missing eyeglasses make life a blur for a third of nursing home patients with Alzheimer's disease
... had either lost their glasses, broken them or had prescriptions that were no longer sufficient. Several of the patients were too cognitively impaired to ask for help. Vision problems make it difficult for a person to function and can aggravate symptoms of dementia, Koch said. "The loss of visual stimulation may c...Do free drug samples influence residents' prescribing decisions?
...ug samples in clinic were more likely to write new prescriptions for heavily advertised drugs and less likely to recommend OTC drugs than their peers. There was also a trend toward less use of inexpensive drugs." Although the study was small and limited to 5 drug classes, the results suggest some potential concern...Polypharmacy in children on the rise in the US
...bing multiple drugs is the prevalence of off-label prescriptions the practice of prescribing a medication to children when there is not a FDA approved indication for that disorder in children. "For example, aytpicals like risperidone are sometimes used to symptomatically treat psychosis or aggression in children,...Why don't some patients take their medicines?
...significantly influence whether a person sticks to prescriptions when that patient faces pressures from their medication costs," says lead author John Piette, Ph.D. Piette is a member of the VA Ann Arbor Center for Practice Management and Outcomes Research and associate professor in the general medicine division o...The Epilepsy Foundation issues Call to Action
...ording to experts, there were more than 56 million prescriptions written last year making anticonvulsants the fifth most prescribed class of medications. "The Epilepsy Foundation began its outreach about the effects of anticonvulsants on women in the mid-1990s with an initiative to educate women with epilepsy and...Insurance company rewards to doctors and hospitals may not improve care
...orities. A cardiologist may want to make sure that prescriptions are written accurately and that the care plan is clearly communicated back to the primary care doctor, while still having time to spend with his or her patient. Furthermore, Dudley says, some doctors' offices or hospitals might be more ready to res......rida, opted for generics for fewer than 46% of all prescriptions filled in 2004. The states with the greatest savings opportunity from generics are California and Texas, at $1.5 billion each, and New York, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, at $1 billion each. Possible explanations for the variations in generic fil...