Powerful Medicines

Powerful Medicines PDF Author: Jerry Avorn, M.D.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307489752
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
If you believe that the latest blockbuster medication is worth a premium price over your generic brand, or that doctors have access to all the information they need about a drug’s safety and effectiveness each time they write a prescription, Dr. Jerry Avorn has some sobering news. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of patient care, teaching, and research at Harvard Medical School, he shares his firsthand experience of the wide gap in our knowledge of the effectiveness of one medication as compared to another. In Powerful Medicines, he reminds us that every pill we take represents a delicate compromise between the promise of healing, the risk of side effects, and an increasingly daunting price. The stakes on each front grow higher every year as new drugs with impressive power, worrisome side effects, and troubling costs are introduced. This is a comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at issues that affect everyone: our shortage of data comparing the worth of similar drugs for the same condition; alarming lapses in the detection of lethal side effects; the underuse of life-saving medications; lavish marketing campaigns that influence what doctors prescribe; and the resulting upward spiral of costs that places vital drugs beyond the reach of many Americans. In this engagingly written book, Dr. Avorn asks questions that will interest every consumer: How can a product judged safe by the Food and Drug Administration turn out to have unexpectedly lethal side effects? Why has the nation’s drug bill been growing at nearly 20 percent per year? How can physicians and patients pick the best medication in its class? How do doctors actually make their prescribing decisions, and why do those decisions sometimes go wrong? Why do so many Americans suffer preventable illnesses and deaths that proper drug use could have averted? How can the nation gain control over its escalating drug budget without resorting to rationing or draconian governmental controls? Using clinical case histories taken from his own work as a practitioner, researcher, and advocate, Dr. Avorn demonstrates the impressive power of the well-conceived prescription as well as the debacles that can result when medications are misused. He describes an innovative program that employs the pharmaceutical industry’s own marketing techniques to reduce use of some of the most overprescribed and overpriced products. Powerful Medicines offers timely and practical advice on how the nation can improve its drug-approval process, and how patients can work with doctors to make sure their prescriptions are safe, effective, and as affordable as possible. This is a passionate and provocative call for action as well as a compelling work of clear-headed science.

Powerful Medicines

Powerful Medicines PDF Author: Jerry Avorn, M.D.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307489752
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 476

Get Book Here

Book Description
If you believe that the latest blockbuster medication is worth a premium price over your generic brand, or that doctors have access to all the information they need about a drug’s safety and effectiveness each time they write a prescription, Dr. Jerry Avorn has some sobering news. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of patient care, teaching, and research at Harvard Medical School, he shares his firsthand experience of the wide gap in our knowledge of the effectiveness of one medication as compared to another. In Powerful Medicines, he reminds us that every pill we take represents a delicate compromise between the promise of healing, the risk of side effects, and an increasingly daunting price. The stakes on each front grow higher every year as new drugs with impressive power, worrisome side effects, and troubling costs are introduced. This is a comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at issues that affect everyone: our shortage of data comparing the worth of similar drugs for the same condition; alarming lapses in the detection of lethal side effects; the underuse of life-saving medications; lavish marketing campaigns that influence what doctors prescribe; and the resulting upward spiral of costs that places vital drugs beyond the reach of many Americans. In this engagingly written book, Dr. Avorn asks questions that will interest every consumer: How can a product judged safe by the Food and Drug Administration turn out to have unexpectedly lethal side effects? Why has the nation’s drug bill been growing at nearly 20 percent per year? How can physicians and patients pick the best medication in its class? How do doctors actually make their prescribing decisions, and why do those decisions sometimes go wrong? Why do so many Americans suffer preventable illnesses and deaths that proper drug use could have averted? How can the nation gain control over its escalating drug budget without resorting to rationing or draconian governmental controls? Using clinical case histories taken from his own work as a practitioner, researcher, and advocate, Dr. Avorn demonstrates the impressive power of the well-conceived prescription as well as the debacles that can result when medications are misused. He describes an innovative program that employs the pharmaceutical industry’s own marketing techniques to reduce use of some of the most overprescribed and overpriced products. Powerful Medicines offers timely and practical advice on how the nation can improve its drug-approval process, and how patients can work with doctors to make sure their prescriptions are safe, effective, and as affordable as possible. This is a passionate and provocative call for action as well as a compelling work of clear-headed science.

Medications

Medications PDF Author: Cheryl Gerson Tuttle
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 9780810849051
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
While not a substitute for professional medical advice, this book is a source of information about common medical conditions that teens often face. The medications that are commonly prescribed for that condition are listed along with a description of how the medication works in the body, the brand name and generic or chemical ingredients for the medication, and the common side effects and possible interactions with food and other drugs. Additionally, strategies for coping with the stigma associated with taking medications for chronic conditions are included. The goal of this book is to inform the teen about the medications, enabling the teen to be an active participant in his or her treatment with medications. For example, a suggested list of questions to ask the doctor or pharmacist is provided. Questions such as "What food, drinks, or other medications should I avoid while taking this medication?" "What do I do if I miss a dose?" "What are the possible side effects, and which side effects should I report and which should I ignore?" "How long before I see positive effects and know that the medication is working?" By thinking about his or her lifestyle, the teen will be alert to anything that could affect the medication and symptoms that signal side effects or possible other problems with the medication. Being well informed and playing an active role in the decision-making process can help teens to feel more in control of their medical conditions. Medication issues such as dealing with several different doctors or specialists, taking several different medications, why not to order medications from another country or from the web, taking medications when pregnant or nursing, donating blood while taking certain medications, driving, and traveling and taking medications are addressed. This useful reference concludes with an example medication diary, encouraging teens to monitor their medications and any side effects; a glossary; a drug list, arranged alphabetically and listing the generic, brand name, type,

The Stigma of Addiction

The Stigma of Addiction PDF Author: Jonathan D. Avery
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030025802
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
This book explores the stigma of addiction and discusses ways to improve negative attitudes for better health outcomes. Written by experts in the field of addiction, the text takes a reader-friendly approach to the essentials of addiction stigma across settings and demographics. The authors reveal the challenges patients face in the spaces that should be the safest, including the home, the workplace, the justice system, and even the clinical community. The text aims to deliver tools to professionals who work with individuals with substance use disorders and lay persons seeking to combat stigma and promote recovery. The Stigma of Addiction is an excellent resource for psychiatrists, addiction medicine specialists, students across specialties, researchers, public health officials, and individuals with substance use disorders and their families.

Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic

Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309459575
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 483

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Book Description
Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

The Definitive Guide to Foods & Herbs for Crohn's, Colitis & Irritable Bowel Sufferers

The Definitive Guide to Foods & Herbs for Crohn's, Colitis & Irritable Bowel Sufferers PDF Author: Paul Raven
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1430306688
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
This book discusses over 125 different foods, beverages, condiments and spices. For each listing, pros and cons are discussed, as they relate to people suffering from Crohn's, Colitis or Irritable Bowel. It also indicates which foods are most likely to be digested well together. To make things quick and easy for the reader, each listing is assigned a "Raven Digestion Score" based on a five star system. The book also presents various herbal and lifestyle suggestions that can help to reduce the reader's symptoms and even help to heal their digestive tract.

The Selection and Use of Essential Medicines

The Selection and Use of Essential Medicines PDF Author: WHO Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines
Publisher: WHO
ISBN:
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
This report presents the recommendations of the WHO Expert Committee responsible for updating the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. The first part contains a progress report on the new procedures for updating the Model List and the development of the WHO Essential Medicines Library. It continues with a section on changes made in revising the Model List followed by a review of some sections such as hypertensive medicines and fast track procedures for deleting items. Annexes include the 13th version of the Model List and items on the list sorted according to their 5-level Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification codes.

Crossing the Quality Chasm

Crossing the Quality Chasm PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309132967
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
Second in a series of publications from the Institute of Medicine's Quality of Health Care in America project Today's health care providers have more research findings and more technology available to them than ever before. Yet recent reports have raised serious doubts about the quality of health care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm makes an urgent call for fundamental change to close the quality gap. This book recommends a sweeping redesign of the American health care system and provides overarching principles for specific direction for policymakers, health care leaders, clinicians, regulators, purchasers, and others. In this comprehensive volume the committee offers: A set of performance expectations for the 21st century health care system. A set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships. A suggested organizing framework to better align the incentives inherent in payment and accountability with improvements in quality. Key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen clinical information systems. Analyzing health care organizations as complex systems, Crossing the Quality Chasm also documents the causes of the quality gap, identifies current practices that impede quality care, and explores how systems approaches can be used to implement change.

The Essential Guide to Psychoactive Drugs in Canada, Second Edition

The Essential Guide to Psychoactive Drugs in Canada, Second Edition PDF Author: Rick Csiernik
Publisher: Canadian Scholars’ Press
ISBN: 1773381601
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
The second edition of the formerly titled Just Say Know: A Counsellor’s Guide to Psychoactive Drugs, this indispensable counselling resource provides a practical understanding of psychoactive drug pharmacology and physiology. Rick Csiernik unpacks the risks and therapeutic applications of the most commonly used and misused drug families, including depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and psychotherapeutics. This new edition features a wide range of updated research and content addressing the recent rise of opioid, fentanyl, cannabis, novel psychoactive substances, and antipsychotic medication use, as well as the impacts of drug use on sleep and mental health. Two new appendixes are featured summarizing the effects of drugs on pregnancy and interactions drugs may have with certain brain chemicals. The Essential Guide to Psychoactive Drugs in Canada is the perfect addition to any addiction or mental health-related course. User-friendly and highly readable, this resource serves as a guide for service providers to deliver evidence-based care. This text is crucial for counsellors, therapists, instructors, and students looking to acquire an in-depth practical understanding of drug use, medication, and addiction in disciplines such as social work, sociology, pharmacology, health studies, nursing, psychology, and addiction studies.

ICEC Conference Proceedings 2003

ICEC Conference Proceedings 2003 PDF Author: Donald Marinelli
Publisher: Carnegie-Mellon University Press
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
The essays in this first volume in the Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Series represent entertainment computing research and development. The veritable explosion of social transformations brought about by computer-generated and computer-mediated digital entertainment was upon us before many in higher education realized the world had changed. The artificial cleavage between what was considered to be entertainment and the calculating functionality of computer processing ws dispelled in a hail of wireless technologies, unique input devices, enhanced display capabilities, multi-player games and worlds, and breathtaking advances in animatronics.

Heartburn and Reflux For Dummies

Heartburn and Reflux For Dummies PDF Author: Carol Ann Rinzler
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118054040
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
If you or someone you love suffers from heartburn, you know that it can be very disruptive to your daily life. Most heartburn sufferers say it stops them from enjoying food. Others say it keeps them from getting a good night’s sleep, it makes it hard to concentrate at work, and it interferes with family activities. Sound familiar? Don’t worry. Heartburn is a pain, but it can be helped. Heartburn & Reflux For Dummies is the plain-English guide to relief for you if you’ve been recently diagnosed with heartburn or reflux, if you suspect you may suffer from it, or if you’re concerned about your loved ones. This comprehensive book shows you how to recognize symptoms, get an accurate diagnosis, and work with a physician to receive the most effective treatment available. You’ll see how to: Get your symptoms under control Find the right physician Reduce stress and fine-tune your diet Avoid medicines that trigger upset Decide if surgery is right for you This friendly guide explains what the various forms of reflux are, as all too often reflux is either self-treated or mistreated and followed by serious complications. There’s detailed information on building a comfortable lifestyle by reducing stress, improving your diet, controlling portions, and timing your meals to minimize heartburn and reflux. Plus, this sensitive guide even covers heartburn in infants, children, and the elderly. You’ll also discover: How to heal the esophagus of inflammation or injury, as well as manage or prevent complications The latest information on prescription medications and side effects Healthy habits to adopt to reduce your pain triggers Helpful home remedies and alternative medicine The special risks and remedies for heartburn during pregnancy The side effects and complications associated with surgery Complete with a catalog of heartburn medicines and a list of reliable Web sites for people with digestive disorders, Heartburn & Reflux For Dummies is your one-stop guide to stopping the hurt, starting to heal, and enjoying food again!