- Anti-anxiety drug prescribed to 8million Brits ‘linked to 3,400 deaths in 5 years’ The Mirror
- I’m stuck on the ‘anxiety’ drug pregabalin The Telegraph
- Anxiety drug pregabalin killed my son — and hundreds more are dying from it The Times
- Inside the UK’s battle with pregabalin: How addiction fears over opioids and benzos left country sleepwalking towards unfolding fiasco with ‘Valium on steroids’ – as map reveals areas where up to one in 25 residents are given powerful anti-anx Daily Mail
- Pregabalin ‘robbed me of a life and stopped me having kids’, woman who lived her whole life with chronic pain reveals LBC
Tag Archives: Prescribed
Melatonin should be avoided in kids unless prescribed: experts
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) is urging parents to consult a health care professional before starting their child on melatonin, according to a recent health advisory.
“While melatonin can be useful in treating certain sleep-wake disorders, like jet lag, there is much less evidence it can help healthy children or adults fall asleep faster,” said Dr. M. Adeel Rishi, vice chair of the AASM Public Safety Committee and a pulmonology, sleep medicine and critical care specialist at Indiana University Health Physicians, in a press release.
“Instead of turning to melatonin, parents should work on encouraging their children to develop good sleep habits,” he added.
Those sleep habits include “setting a regular bedtime and wake time, having a bedtime routine and limiting screen time as bedtime approaches.”
Our bodies naturally produce the hormone melatonin to regulate our sleep, per the health advisory.
It is available as an over-the-counter medication and often advertised as a sleep aid — but there “is little evidence that taking it as a supplement is effective in treating insomnia in healthy children,” according to the sleep academy, which is headquartered in Darien, Ill.
Melatonin has less oversight because it’s regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as a “dietary supplement” — and research has found that the melatonin content in supplements is not uniform, according to the press release.
One 2017 Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine study examined the melatonin content in approximately 30 supplements. It found that over 71% of supplements did not meet the label claims.
The study found the most significant variability in melatonin content in chewable tablets, which is the form mostly likely used in children.
This study “found that the actual content in these supplements was very inaccurate,” said Dr. Baljinder S. Sidhu, a pulmonologist and sleep specialist who is the co-owner of Pacific Coast Critical Care Group in Southern California.
“While this may not be a big deal for adults, this could have a significant impact on small children,” he said.
He advises the use of melatonin with caution.
“One of the more surprising facts I share with my patients is that over-the-counter melatonin is not closely regulated,” Sidhu added.
Pediatric melatonin ingestions reported annually to U.S. poison control centers increased by 530% during 2012–2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“The availability of melatonin as gummies or chewable tablets makes it more tempting to give to children and more likely for them to overdose,” added Rishi in the press release.
“Often, behavioral interventions other than medication are successful in addressing insomnia in children,” he added.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine shares the following important tips.
1. Melatonin should be kept out of reach of children.
2. Parents should discuss the topic with a health care professional before starting the medication.
3. Parents need to know that “many sleep problems can be better managed with a change in schedules, habits or behaviors rather than taking melatonin.”
If parents are going to give their child melatonin, the sleep academy recommends verifying that the product has the USP Verified Mark for safety reasons.
“Melatonin is never a first-line treatment in children,” Sidhu told Fox News Digital.
“Insomnia is not uncommon in children as they develop after the age of 2,” he added.
“This resistance to bedtime can be difficult to manage and even has a diagnosis we call ‘limit-setting insomnia,’ which can be generally managed with bedtime routines.”
He reminds people that while melatonin can be used for certain sleep disorders, such as ADHD and other chronic health conditions that affect sleep as well as autism, it should always be recommended and managed by a physician first.
The Doctor Prescribed an Obesity Drug. Her Insurer Called It ‘Vanity.’
“Access to medicines for the treatment of obesity is dismal in this country,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
But even if a patient’s insurer will cover weight loss drugs, most doctors do not suggest the drugs and most patients do not ask for them, as they fail to realize there are good treatment options, said Dr. Scott Kahan, an obesity medicine specialist in Washington, D.C. And, he added, even if doctors and patients know there are F.D.A. approved drugs, many think they are “unsafe or not well studied and that everyone regains their weight.”
The medical system bears much of the blame, Dr. Stanford said. Just 1 percent of doctors in the United States are trained in obesity medicine. “It’s the biggest chronic disease of our time, and no one is learning anything about it,” she said.
Data on medication use by patients predate the newer, more effective and safe drugs made by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Still, obesity medicine doctors say, they doubt that the number has changed much from the earlier studies that found that less than 1 percent who are eligible obtained one of these drugs. That is about the same percentage as those who get bariatric surgery, which most insurers, including Medicare, pay for.
“The perception is, ‘If you are heavy, pull yourself up from your bootstraps and try harder,’” Dr. Kahan said.
And that, he adds, is a perception many patients, as well as doctors, share, making them reluctant to seek medical help or prescription medications.
Study reveals lithium prescribed to bipolar and depression patients cuts risk of dementia
Could LITHIUM stop dementia? Study reveals chemical prescribed to bipolar patients could cut risk of the memory-robbing disorder
- Mental health patients given lithium were less likely to get dementia, medics say
- Only 10% of patients on lithium got dementia, compared to 11% of other patients
- While the study is small it provides evidence for more and larger experiments
- Dementia charities welcomed the study and urged scientists to keep working
- Study was based on the health records 30,000 British mental health patients
A mood-stabilising drug given to patients with bipolar disorder may cut the risk of dementia, a study suggests.
Lithium’s supposed benefits were uncovered by Cambridge University academics who analysed nearly 30,000 mental health patients.
Only 9.7 per cent of patients prescribed lithium got dementia, compared to 11.2 per cent among those not on it.
This is despite conditions like bipolar disorder being heavily linked to an increased risk of the cruel disorder.
Charities today said it was ‘vital’ that researchers follow up on the findings urgently, with no drug proven to prevent dementia.
Dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK, robbing 900,000 Britons of their memories.
Nearly 5milion people in the US are also living with the disorder, which academics have spent decades trying to eradicate.
Numerous other scientific papers have pinpointed lithium as a promising substance in the search for ways to combat the memory-robbing condition.
Lithium is naturally found in vegetables, grains and, at very low concentrations, in the water supply.
UK scientists have found patients prescribed the mood-stabilising medication lithium had lower rate of dementia diagnosis than other patients despite having an increased risk of developing the memory-robbing disorder. This could open the door to further trials to see if the metal could help reduce dementia risk
At much higher levels, it is sometimes prescribed on the NHS as a treatment for a variety of mood disorders, such as mania, depression, and bipolar.
Scientists examined the medical records of 29,618 over-50s who accessed mental health services at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.
None of the participants — who were followed for up to 14 years — had either mild cognitive impairment or dementia when the study began.
Around 550 patients had been prescribed lithium, allowing the experts to compare whether the drug lowered the risk of dementia.
Results were published in the journal Plos Medicine.
Lead author of the study Dr Shanquan Chen said the finding was unexpected, given people with bipolar disorder have been found to be more at risk of dementia.
‘It’s far too early to say for sure, but it’s possible that lithium might reduce the risk of dementia in people with bipolar disorder,’ he said.
But the study was only small, and bigger experiments are needed to piece together any link.
Dr Sara Imarisio, from Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: ‘There is a desperate need for new dementia treatments.
‘Where there is evidence an existing, widely used, relatively safe and inexpensive drug could help, it is vital researchers follow up on this as quickly as possible.’
Medics are unsure exactly how the metal could have a protective effect.
Some have suggested lithium could inhibit enzymes responsible for the formation of the toxic proteins that build up in the brain from Alzheimer’s disease and cause brain cells to die.
It comes after a study of 800,000 people in Denmark in 2017 found those who drank water with a high concentration of the metal were 17 per cent less likely to have dementia.
However, the results were not clear cut with people in the middle exposure bracket 22 per cent more likely to have dementia than the low exposure group.
Some experts have said when it comes to drinking water, other elements like calcium could be playing a role.
Lithium medication should only be taken on prescription as the dosage is unique to each patient. Taking too much can cause potentially life threatening problems with organs like the kidneys.
Former N.J. doctor illegally prescribed thousands of pills, submitted fake insurance claims, prosecutor says
A former doctor in New Jersey was indicted last month on more than a dozen drug-dealing charges and also is facing charges related to an illegal medical billing scheme that lasted several years, authorities said.
A Burlington County grand jury indicted Morris “Moishe” Starkman, 62, of Cinnaminson, on Nov. 19 on 15 counts of distribution of a controlled dangerous substance, five counts of health care claims fraud and one count of insurance fraud, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday.
Starkman was originally charged on Nov. 22, 2019 after police executed a search warrant at his home and seized multiple electronic devices along with business, financial and medical records, according to a statement from the office.
Investigators determined that between January 2015 and January 2018, the doctor issued prescriptions through his Bordentown Family Practice for nearly 1.4 million total doses of opioids, including Oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet, Roxicodone, Endocet), Hydrocodone (Vicodin, Norco, Lorcet, Lortab), Oxymorphone (Opana), Hydromorphone (Dilaudid), morphine and fentanyl.
Eight patients of Starkman received 11 doses of opioids per day on average during that three-year period and one patient alone was prescribed 17,640 doses, which equates to more than 15 per day, the office said. They each received anywhere from four to 10 times the maximum dose recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“An investigation revealed that Starkman would perform cursory examinations on patients before prescribing large amounts of opioids without medical justification, consideration of whether his patients were benefitting from the prescription painkillers he routinely and repeatedly prescribed, or exploration of the underlying causes for their pain,” according to a statement from Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina.
The former doctor maintained inadequate records, which did not document treatment plans for pain management, and Coffina said the patients would frequently return to the practice for refills for the highly-addictive drugs and would be charged for an office visit.
“Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from overdoses and millions more struggle with Substance Use Disorder,” Coffina said. “In a great many of these cases, the person’s addiction began with prescribed opioids. Physicians who violated their oaths and patients’ trust by indiscriminately prescribing opioid medication without monitoring how their patients were doing on the drugs and whether they were becoming addicted must be held accountable for criminal conduct that has contributed to the destruction of lives and the relentless crisis of addiction so many are still dealing with.”
Over the same time period, Starkman submitted fake healthcare claims to insurance companies for more than $50,000 for services that were either not authorized, not eligible for reimbursement, not provided as he claimed or did not happen at all, investigators said.
Starkman, who first came to the attention of investigators in late 2016 after an insurance company contacted them about suspicious illegal activity at his practice, had his license temporarily suspended in August 2017, the office said. In April 2018, he agreed to permanently surrender his license to practice medicine in the state.
Records seized from Starkman’s practice revealed that one of his patients fatally overdosed in May 2015, two months after his last visit to the Bordentown office, Coffina said.
The male patient, whom the state attorney general’s office previously identified only by the initials H.H., came to Starkman as a 19-year-old complaining of lower back pain. Starkman allegedly prescribed pain pills for H.H., sometimes as many as 240 pills a month.
The doctor continued to refill the prescriptions despite concerning visits in 2014 and 2015 where H.H. was “slurring and falling asleep” or “sick (and) ran out of meds early again,” the attorney general’s office said. He died in May 2015 of an overdose at the age of 22, two months after his final visit with Starkman.
“However, due to insufficient evidence connecting his prescriptions to the patient’s fatal overdose, Starkman was not criminally charged in connection with the patient’s death,” Coffina said.
Starkman was scheduled to be arraigned in Burlington County Superior Court at an unspecified time.
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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
Prescribed burn gets out of hand, prompts evacuations in California
An intentional burn meant to prevent wildfire got out of control Friday night in Santa Cruz County, California, and prompted evacuations, authorities said.
The Estrada Fire fire near the rural town of Corralitos had expanded to 150 acres Friday night, with no containment, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
“The #EstradaFire is the result of the Estrada Ranch Prescribed Fire,” Cal Fire’s unit covering San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties unit said on Twitter.
Temperatures in the area were in the low 80s, and light winds at times pointed offshore in the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. The conditions, including relatively high humidity, didn’t meet the requirements for a fire weather watch.
In a statement Thursday, Cal Fire’s San Mateo and Santa Cruz unit said the planned 20-acre prescribed burn was necessary “to reduce fuel accumulation and restore and enhance grassland.”
“Prescribed vegetation management burns are carefully planned controlled burns that must meet a predefined set of conditions (prescription) in order to achieve ideal fire behavior,” it said.
Cal Fire said the fire started at 2:40 p.m. Friday and was spreading at a moderate pace. Structures and power lines were threatened, it said.
Mandatory evacuations were in effect for the Pajaro area, Cal Fire said.
Crews had the blaze surrounded by fire retardant, and the fire might be slowing, the San Mateo and Santa Cruz unit said.
“The fire has died down, and crews will be working throughout the night to strengthen direct control lines,” the unit tweeted.
Ohio doctor who prescribed deworming drug for Covid founded pro-ivermectin group
The doctor who prescribed the deworming drug ivermectin to an Ohio man despite protests from hospital officials belongs to a larger group of medical professionals who promote the drug as a cure for Covid-19.
The doctor, Fred Wagshul, a cardiovascular and pulmonary disease specialist in Dayton, is listed as a founding member of the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance, or FLCCCA, a nonprofit organization formed during the pandemic made up of physicians who don’t agree with some of the state and federal government’s Covid guidance.
According to its website, the alliance is “dedicated to developing highly effective treatment protocols to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and to improve the outcomes for patients ill with the disease.”
The group reviews published medical literature, helps develop “effective treatment protocols” and educates physicians on emerging treatment options for Covid-19 patients.
Among those treatments is ivermectin, which has been called a “wonder drug” because of its use in treating parasitic diseases but has not shown the same results in studies against viruses. The alliance takes a pro-ivermectin stance, saying on its website that “we regard ivermectin as a core medication in the prevention and treatment” of Covid-19. The group also provides guides on how to get an ivermectin prescription and encourages people to take preventive doses of the drug and to wear masks.
Last month, Wagshul prescribed ivermectin to Jeffrey Smith, a patient in the intensive care unit of West Chester Hospital. Wagshul was not affiliated with the hospital and was sought out by Smith’s wife, Julie, who turned to ivermectin after the hospital said they had exhausted all treatment options for her husband.
Wagshul is a vocal proponent of treating Covid-19 with ivermectin, an anti-parasitic deworming medicine used on animals and humans that has not been proven to be effective against Covid. He told The Ohio Capital Journal it was akin to “genocide” not to use the drug in Covid-19 treatment, and the science behind its efficacy is “irrefutable.” He also said the FDA’s discouraging of its use among Covid patients was part of a larger conspiracy.
After West Chester Hospital officials refused to prescribe the drug to Smith, his wife sued and, on Aug. 23, a judge ruled in her favor. Now, her husband is on a three-week dose of the medicine. His current condition is unknown.
The drug was the subject of research into possible use as a Covid-19 treatment — including a promising non-peer-reviewed study that was later determined to be “flawed” and taken down by the website Research Square, which hosts preprints of research papers that have not yet been published in academic journals.
FLCCCA did not return a request for comment and many of its founding members were unable to be reached. Wagshul did not immediately respond to calls and an email seeking comment.
On Wednesday, the podcast host Joe Rogan told his millions of followers that he has Covid-19 and was using ivermectin to beat the virus.
Ivermectin was originally introduced as a veterinary drug for livestock animals in the late-1970s and quickly proved useful in combating certain human diseases caused by parasites, a discovery that won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2015. It comes in pills and pastes, in versions meant for humans and for animals.
The Food and Drug Administration last month urged people to stop believing misinformation claiming that the livestock treatment would help cure Covid, saying it saw multiple reports of patients who have been hospitalized after “self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses.”
In a statement in March and republished in August, Dr. Pierre Kory, president and chief medical officer of the FLCCC, promoted ivermectin’s safety record and called FDA guidance misleading.
“Due to its extensive record of safe use, medical professionals can feel confident about prescribing Ivermectin,” Kory said. “In the 40 years since it was first approved for use, more than 3.8 billion people have been treated with an average of only 160 adverse events reported per year. This is a better safety record than several vitamins.”
If You’re Prescribed Either of These Medications, Don’t Use Them, FDA Says
If you’re trying to get healthier post-quarantine, you’re not alone. While, for some people, that means hitting the gym once again or eating a healthier diet, for others, it means making up for lost time when it comes to medical appointments you may have missed due to lockdowns.
Unfortunately, if you’ve recently been prescribed two particular types of medication by your doctor, your health could be in harm’s way. Read on to discover which prescription medications the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) says you should stop using now.
RELATED: If You Use This to Sleep, Talk to Your Doctor Immediately, Makers Say.
On July 13, the FDA announced that Innoveix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. had recalled all of its sterile compounded drugs.
The affected drugs include Semorelin / Ipamorelin 3mg with lot number SIP210 and expiration date 12/15/2021, lot number SIP215 and expiration date 01/14/2022, and lot number SIP220 and expiration date 01/23/2022; and AOD-9604 3mg with lot number AOD205 and expiration date 11/09/2021, lot number AOD210 and expiration date 11/18/2021, lot number AOD 215 and expiration date 12/15/2021, and lot number AOD202 and expiration date 11/09/2021. The medications are contained in glass vials packaged in 3-by-3-inch white boxes.
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The medications, which are often used to increase human growth hormone production and boost metabolism, among other uses, were pulled from the market due to concerns about their lack of sterility.
The sterility issues were discovered during a routine FDA inspection, and could put those prescribed the medications at risk. “Administration of a drug product intended to be sterile, that is not sterile, could result in serious infections which may be life-threatening,” the FDA explains.
While, as of the recall date, there had been no reports of adverse reactions related to the use of the products, the FDA says, “Customers who have received sterile compounded products subject to the voluntary recall should not use them and return the product to the pharmacy for a full refund.”
If you have questions related to the recall, contact Innoveix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. at 800-370-1910 on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST, or email the company at innoveix@gmail.com. If you think that you may have experienced ill effects related to use of these medications, contact a medical professional.
This isn’t the first time Innoveix has pulled its drugs from the market due to potential safety issues related to sterility concerns.
While the company hadn’t received any reports of adverse reactions due to the use of their medications at the time, on Oct. 10, 2019, the FDA announced that Innoveix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. had recalled all of its sterile compounded drug products within their expiration period due to “a lack of assurance of sterility” arising following a routine inspection by the FDA.
RELATED: If You Use This Medication, Call Your Doctor Now, FDA Says.