Eli Lilly gets credit for being economically savvy and the first out of the chute.
Cymbalta (duloxetine) is a much awaited antidepressant that is supposed to be effective especially on the bodily aspects of depression. Those pesky aches and pains that are associated with depression in one form or another.
They seem to have secured “back pain” as an indication for Cymbalta. Read more on Cymbalta For Back Pain…
Filed under depression, medicine, prescription drugs by on Nov 29th, 2010. Comment. 
Okay, I have this vivid memory of sitting with a bunch of colleagues in a doctors’ lounge in Beauvais, France, trying to figure out why we had inflicted upon ourselves the punishment of studying medicine and then practicing it for a living. There were a couple of guys who wanted to be missionaries; really religious folk. Others discussed the exalted status of the doctor in the community, the money that went with it, etc. When it came to a choice of specialty, there was a lot of discussion, even then and even in France, about the difficulty of the studies, of developing a practice, of making a living. Rarely there was a feeling of passion. This was viewed as naive. I remember a woman who wanted to go into oral surgery because she believed that the human spirit was lodged in the teeth (Really). A woman who wanted to be a cancer doctor because her mother had died of cancer far too young. And there was me, the “brain freak,” granted there was a Jewish idea of public service and healing humanity. But my passion for the brain was (and is) real. How it works and what it does to behavior are things I find passionately consuming as well as sacred. Some of the French doctors laughed; others just smiled. I guess they figured I would grow out of it.
As I write this, I am wearing a heart-shaped wristwatch, with a picture of a sagittal section of the human brain. Read more on “Marijuana Doctors”…
Filed under medicine, News by on Nov 10th, 2010. Comment.
“I really don’t need medicine. I am fine and I applied to the fire department and I will be a firefighter.”
This is a typical response from a man. In our culture, we raise junior John Wayne types — tough and independent.
He was in the room with his mother, who was fighting back tears. “I have tried everything to make him take medicine. I can beg him, but he does not take it very often.” Read more on The Mother Who Learned To Trust…
Filed under Family, medicine, prescription drugs by on Oct 20th, 2010. Comment.
I used to be the darling of the pharmaceutical industry. They gave me contracts to test their new drugs. They hired me to travel the country and speak at meetings of medical groups. I don’t think their current opinion is quite so flattering. I’m often asked, “Why do you hate prescription drugs? Why are you against drug companies?” And the answer is, “I’m NOT!” I strongly believe in using prescription drugs made by legitimate pharmaceutical companies in certain cases. In fact, I insist on it. If a patient who is aware of my facility in using natural treatments could do better with a prescription, that’s what I advise. If they refuse, I may decide to work with them on a second-best treatment, if it doesn’t run risk of serious illness or death. Otherwise, I tell them to find somebody else to give them natural treatments. I won’t risk their health or life. What I oppose is the politics involved with pharmaceutical companies and some of the things they have done. Read more on Why Big Pharma Gets A Bad Reputation…
Filed under big pharma, medicine, politics by on Sep 7th, 2010. 2 Comments.
I guess the death of Anna Nicole Smith has become old news. All I found in the daily newspaper was a short item saying that the trial was going on in Los Angeles.
After more than one internet search, the only mention I found of what is going on online is this one, in what seems to be a Seattle tabloid.
I strongly suspect that this is a road that has been travelled more than I know. After all, I am not exactly a celebrity watcher. Nevertheless, from what we already know about folks like Michael Jackson, and from what Dr. Nathalie Maullin seems to have said under oath, I think we have a pretty good idea of what it is like to be a drug-seeking celebrity.
First, I think it worth noting that Dr. Maullin was on staff at Cedars-Sinai at the time. Now putting aside the PR of the latter (it is allegedly the best in L.A.; they have ads and some top notch publicity firm–) Cedars Sinai is a hospital. I can testify that to be on staff at any clinic or hospital, they do a background check. Read more on Anna Nicole’s Doctors Couldn’t Have Made Worse Decisions If They Tried…
Filed under Addictions, medicine, prescription drugs by on Aug 19th, 2010. Comment.
This is the system we want to run health care.
Civil liberties get lost, people spend a lot of money writing spy reports and then don’t read them. There is little in government that works.
I know the system that the FDA wants for drugs does not work.
First, you know nobody will use it with diet and exercise as recommended. They are both dull, not fun, and in the literature I read changes that are increasingly modest seem to be acceptable, and take a team of cheerleaders. Even “natural” companies, like Metagenics, have gone and credentialed counselors to help with lifestyle changes. Read more on Diet Drugs: The Public Is The Loser…
Filed under eating disorders, medicine, weight by on Aug 17th, 2010. 2 Comments.
When first we moved to an office in a bohemian section of town, my marketing efforts were as naive as they were enthusiastic. I walked into every shop in the neighborhood to introduce myself as a physician and psychiatrist who had recently moved in, and did some innovative things.
I especially remember my visit to a salon, where the customers, all male, (I said it was a bohemian section) told me about various troubles with their physical appearance; hardly my specialty, but I am open to doing what I can do in many context.
As soon as I returned to my office, I got a phone call asking if I could do a wart removal, and how quickly. I declined. I cannot be all things to all people. Read more on Warts And All…
Filed under medicine, Science by on Aug 13th, 2010. Comment.
Even though it has been slow and gentle, my weight loss (yes, 150 pounds without surgery in a couple of years and yes, I will speak of it more later and elsewhere) means, among other things, that I have located some new veins — and today, an artery.
Now the veins that made me happiest were, and still are, the ones on the back of my hands. I have a memory etched into my soul of a chief resident in neurology at the University of Minnesota who told me privately,and with all of the discretion that he could figure out how to muster,that I should be ashamed of being as fat as I was. Because if ever I had a serious health crisis, and nobody could find a vein, someone could die from lack of a proper venous access. It didn’t take any training in psychiatry to figure out that some time, in the past not too distant to that remark, he had failed to find a vein in someone who died. Of course, I felt horrible. But oh, the joy as I slowly lost weight and was able to locate, when I had enough liquid volume on board, big juicy veins on the back of my hand, even as I can now. Every time I look at them I think “Wow. Even a first year medical student who has never seen a vein on a living person would not only know immediately I have wonderful veins, but could pierce them with just about any kind of tubing, no matter how poorly suited for the job. They could not miss. They would be happy. They would think they are the next star of “Boston Medical” and they would call their parents and ask for some spare money to celebrate. This is what it is to be a “real doctor.”
Actually, most veins are now pierced by far less qualified and far lower paid professionals, certified “phlebotomists.” They have taken my blood in unskilled and inappropriate ways, sometimes screwing up all pretense of sterile procedure by doing things like ripping fingers out of latex gloves to get a better “feel.” Another cheap doctor substitute, foisted on people who do not know what they are NOT getting. Read more on As If By Magic An Artery Appears…
Filed under medicine, Research by on Jul 27th, 2010. Comment.
I know about statin drugs. I used to take some of them, various ones, to lower my cholesterol. Long ago, of course, when I was a VA patient but some sort of a “VA VIP” since I am a physician, good God, and someone had to make sure I was getting the best care that a federal institution could give.
One of the things they did was to tell me we had to do something about my awful cholesterol. I knew it was not that awful, but they told me I should get a “statin.” I tried about three or four different ones before I told my doctor never to give me these horrible medications. He told me I was insane, but my cholesterol has lowered considerably since.There are lots of wonderful ways to lower cholesterol (like dancing as much as you can) that do not carry statin risks. The article cited above is not the first one that blows the widespread use of statins out of the water, if someone bothers to listen. Few do. Read more on Cholesterol Drugs Could Be Worse Than Cholesterol…
Filed under medicine by on Jul 18th, 2010. Comment.
This one makes my blood boil. Being a doctor, a good doctor, is not easy. It requires a lot of thinking, taking every patient who comes before you not just as a human, but as a clinical care problem. Knowing the facts, making judgments. It is because we have a tendency to abscond this role that “doctor extenders,” cheaper people, rush in to fill the void.
One of the things we have to do is to weigh the advantages and risks of every procedure.
Sure, there are some mechanisms in place to help us. Things like videotaped informed consents. Things like meters and technology and such.
In the case reported above, a woman who had Bell’s Palsy, a fairly common (and often, spontaneously receding) hemifacial paralysis was subjected to a CT scan. She got too much radiation and became quite ill; someone did not notice the excessive radiation noted on a panel somewhere. Read more on Should FDA Regulate CT Scans?…
Filed under medicine by on Jul 14th, 2010. Comment.