I was trying to remember when prescription drugs were allowed to advertise on television (called “Direct To Consumer Advertising, or DTCA”). Fortunately, I didn’t have to bust my memory cells – I just had to “Google it.”
1995. The year all HHHHell broke loose. At least if you were a doctor.
Suddenly, patients could make their own diagnoses and prescriptions and just phone the order in to their doctor. At least, that’s how most patients thought it should work. And – hoo boy! – were they upset when it wasn’t quite that easy.
Comedian Dennis Miller has a hilarious line: “I divide medical practitioners into two camps. Those who will give me a scrip for Vicodin over the phone, and those who won’t.”
Hilarious if you aren’t a doctor, that is. Read more on RX Package Insert — Just Read It!…
Filed under Diagnosis, medicine, News, prescription drugs by on Dec 1st, 2011. Comment. 
Have you been told that you have high cholesterol? Or at least that you have to watch what you eat so you don’t get high cholesterol?
Of course you have! This is like a mantra – every health care professional and the writers who cover healthcare join in the party line. Everywhere you turn, it seems like everybody is on the “low-cholesterol” bandwagon.
Everybody? Hmm … (looking around) Well, there are exceptions.
Pardon me while I clear my throat and say in a loud, confident voice (and – might I add – a well-informed, scientifically and medically educated voice) – Bunk. Read more on ‘Tis The Season For Bad Dietary Advice…
Filed under Uncategorized by on Dec 2nd, 2011. Comment.
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch” – but there are plenty of free samples when you go to your doctor’s office for a prescription.
Be wary of free samples.
What? Am I asking you to look a gift pill in the mouth? Drugs are expensive, even the co-pay for drugs can be expensive. What’s wrong with getting a freebie?
First, the drug companies that make them do not give them out forever. Usually, they give out samples on a newer drug as part of a launch – kinda like a “grand opening” at a store. The prices are really great that first week and it gets you trained to go to that store.
Another reason drug companies discontinue free samples is that, very often, the insurance companies or government programs may not have them on the “formulary” (the list of available drugs) right away. As soon as the relevant insurance (mediCal in California) starts paying for them, you can say “Bye-bye” to free samples. Read more on Free Samples Might Carry Heavy Cost — Health…
Filed under Doctors, medicine, News by on Dec 7th, 2011. Comment.
My husband introduced me to the original “Star Trek” series and movies and of course the character I most identify with is Mr. Spock.
His famous catch phrase is “Humans are illogical.”
That’s an understatement – and as a psychiatrist I often see those who are far, far past illogical.
One of the topics I have frequently commented about is perhaps the most illogical of all – SPORTS.
It seems there is always a story in the news about sports injuries and deaths, and it is well established that professional sports ruins the lives of the athletes who perform and the cities that finance these bread-and-circus entertainments for their fans.
Yet, sports fans are like religious zealots – they just don’t care about the wreckage and carnage as long as they get to drink heavily and act irresponsibly.
It’s even more of a tragedy when the athletes are not professionals – they are children.
Read more on Minors Should Be Protected By More Than Helmets…
Filed under Brain Damage by on Dec 14th, 2011. Comment.
I’ve written before about Dr. Milhaud — one of the professors in my French medical school. I really liked him.
He was practical and he was enough of a friend to come visit me when I returned to the USA for my general and orthopedic surgical residency staff at the Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Nobody else on my faculty at Amiens even thought of doing that. Read more on Why Use Medical Testing?…
Filed under Diagnosis by on Dec 15th, 2011. Comment.
Remember the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that nobody found? The only way you can be happy about what our beautiful government is doing is if you still think they are there.
Oh, the soldiers who looked long and hard found nothing I remember. They were looking for nerve gas and missiles and yellow cake uranium, Oh My!
Pardon me, it is the season when “The Wizard of Oz” is on TV and I just got into the weird mood of a surreal world.
Although former Pres. Bush and former CIA head George Tennant and Colin Powell and all the rest of that crew have come forward and admitted there were no WMD, I understand from some of my friends who get their entire world-view from Fox News that many of the pundits still claim it was there, is there and other such fantasies.
One of the big scares of the run-up to the Iraq war was the biological hazard attacks. Remember when anthrax was sent to some senators and some other people (it was traced to a domestic source, not a foreign one) and there were rumors-rumors-rumors of other disease-cultures being launched against our citizenry?
Filed under politics by on Dec 22nd, 2011. Comment.