prescription drugs

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Infant Killed by Morphine in Mom's Breast Milk: Cops

Stephanie Greene faces multiple charges in death of her 6-week-old baby

(Newser) - A South Carolina mother has been charged with killing her 6-week-old baby with drug-tainted breast milk. Stephanie Greene, 37, allegedly had so much morphine in her system that her daughter overdosed, reports the New York Daily News . Greene began using Fentanyl and Hydrocodon in 2009, cops say, and had moved...

Drug Labels List an Average 70 Side Effects

Pharmaceutical companies trying to protect themselves from litigation

(Newser) - Take a gander at your typical prescription drug label, and you’ll see a lot more side effects than even the fastest talker could rattle off at the end of a commercial. The average label warns of a staggering 70 side effects, according to a new study that reviewed 5,...

Woman Stashes Two Knives in Surprising Places

Florida woman faces concealed weapons charge

(Newser) - A Florida woman is facing concealed weapons charges over two very well-concealed knives, reports the New York Daily News. Police searched Gloria Perez and another woman after responding to a report of a fight. They found hundreds of illegal prescription pills on the women, say investigators. Perez then became ill...

Ohio County Drowning in Waves of Oxy

Overdoses now leading cause of accidental death in Scioto County

(Newser) - Scioto County sits in the southern tip of Ohio, an unremarkable piece of Appalachia save for the deadly tidal wave of prescription drugs washing over its population. Overdoses have quadrupled over the past decade, reports the New York Times, and are now the leading cause of accidental death, ahead of...

Tough Choice for Bald Men: Hair or Sex?

Those taking finasteride likely to experience long-lasting effects

(Newser) - Tough news for the follicly challenged: Balding men taking finasteride, Merck's prescription drug that goes by the names Propecia and Proscar, may find they have trouble in bed—for a long while. Though the drug's label warns of "reversible" symptoms of sexual dysfunction, a small survey of 76 men...

1 Million Oxycodone Prescriptions Filled in New York City, Which Has 8 Million People
 8M New Yorkers, 
 1M Oxycodone Prescriptions 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

8M New Yorkers, 1M Oxycodone Prescriptions

Staten Island leads the way

(Newser) - New York City's special narcotics prosecutor unveiled some eye-popping numbers about prescription drugs in the Big Apple, according to the Wall Street Journal :
  • One million prescriptions for the pain reliever oxycodone—the generic name for Oxycontin—were filled in 2010. That's enough for 1 in 8 residents of the five
...

FDA OKs 1st Lupus Drug in 50 Years

But Benlysta was only slightly effective in clinical trials

(Newser) - The FDA has approved the first new drug to treat lupus since 1955, reports the New York Times , giving sufferers sanctioned options beyond aspirin, a malaria drug, corticosteroids, and a handful of other drugs used off-label with minimal success. Benlysta will be marketed by GlaxoSmithKline at an estimated per-patient cost...

US Military Awash in Deadly Prescription Drugs

Powerful drug cocktails for stress, depression can be deadly

(Newser) - When Senior Airman Anthony Mena was found dead in his apartment, he had eight prescription medications in his blood, including three antidepressants, a sleeping pill, a sedative, and two powerful painkillers—but it was the combination of those drugs that killed him, not his own hand. The US military's medical...

Millions on Antidepressants ... Without Right Diagnosis

Patients may face side effects without benefits: researchers

(Newser) - More than a quarter of Americans on antidepressants haven’t been diagnosed with depression, anxiety order, or any other condition that the drugs are intended to treat, a study finds. That means millions could face side effects without getting the drugs’ benefits, a researcher tells Reuters . In surveys of more...

US Prescription Drugs Tested on World's Poor
US Prescription Drugs
Tested on World's Poor
INVESTIGATION

US Prescription Drugs Tested on World's Poor

Drugs declared 'safe' on basis of unregulated trials abroad

(Newser) - Prescription drugs that are considered safe kill an estimated 200,000 Americans a year, and investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele have exposed a massive loophole that could help explain why. Some 6,485 clinical trials were conducted abroad in 2008—more than 20 times as many...

FDA Pulls Darvon, Darvocet
FDA Pulls Darvon, Darvocet

FDA Pulls Darvon, Darvocet

Popular painkillers cause abnormal heart rhythms

(Newser) - The painkillers Darvon and Darvocet are being pulled off the prescription drug market because they can trigger potentially fatal heart rhythm abnormalities, CNN reports. The FDA requested that the drug behind both popular brands, propoxyphene, be yanked after a trial study found the side effect. "The drug's effectiveness in...

Prescription Drugs Found in Dead Surfer's Room

Friends say addiction not plausible

(Newser) - Speculation is swirling around the death of surfing great Andy Irons after police found a variety of prescription drugs in his Dallas hotel room. Police reports indicate that Irons had generic versions of Ambien and Xanax, and the county medical examiner told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that one of the bottles...

FDA Restricts Diabetes Drug Over Heart Risk

But regulators stop short of an outright ban on Avandia

(Newser) - The FDA today put severe restrictions on Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline’s embattled diabetes drug, but stopped short of banning it outright. The once-popular drug will now only be available only as a last resort to type 2 diabetes patients who can’t control their glucose levels with any other medication, the...

DEA: Hand Over Your Drugs
 DEA: Hand Over Your Drugs 
PRESCRIPTION-MED SWEEP

DEA: Hand Over Your Drugs

Agency collecting expired, unwanted meds Saturday

(Newser) - You know that 6-year-old bottle of antibiotics sitting in your medicine cabinet left over from that really bad case of strep throat? The DEA wants it. No, really. This Saturday, it's offering Americans a chance to safely dump their expired or unwanted prescription meds in what it's calling a "...

When Clinical Trials Kill
 When Clinical Trials Kill 

When Clinical Trials Kill

Journalist sees danger in industry-funded tests

(Newser) - Dan Markingson was a happy, smart 26-year-old from Minnesota, until the day his mother visited him in Los Angeles and found him delusional, even murderous. He was hospitalized in November 2003 and would have been involuntarily committed—but he was granted a stay, on the condition that he comply with...

RFK Jr.'s Wife Busted for DUI—Again

Mary Kennedy was allegedly on drugs this time

(Newser) - Three months after her drunk driving arrest, Mary Richardson Kennedy has been charged again with driving under the influence—of prescription drugs, this time. The soon-to-be-ex-wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had her license suspended a month ago following her May 15 DUI arrest , but was allowed to drive in...

Sell the Pill Over the Counter

 Sell the Pill 
 Over the Counter 
opinion

Sell the Pill Over the Counter

It's time to end the prescription-only rule

(Newser) - After 50 years, it's time to start selling birth control pills over the counter, writes Kelly Blanchard. "The pill" has proven to be a safe, simple, and essential tool for women's contraception, but the prescription-only barrier limits its usefulness, she writes in the New York Times . It's not just...

New Program Pays People to Take Their Medicine

Cost-saving idea, or slippery slope?

(Newser) - Chiquita Parker used to sometimes forget to take her lupus medication. But now the 25-year-old single mom remembers religiously, because she’s part of a Philadelphia program that enters her to win up to $100 every time she remembers to down a pill. In six months, she’s made $300....

Xanax Is No. 1 Drug in America
 We're a Xanax Nation 
IN CASE You MISSED IT

We're a Xanax Nation

It's the most-prescribed psychiatric medication

(Newser) - Xanax is king in America—the anti-anxiety drug was prescribed more than any psychiatric medication in 2009, according to PsychCentral . We're a "zonked out" nation, observes Hamilton Nolan at Gawker , noting that the "first speed prescription" (amphetamine salts) doesn't show up until No. 11. Here's the top 10:...

Loaded Kennedy Cut Off After 6 Shots

He thinks Obama is better than JFK—when drunk, at least

(Newser) - Just hours after recalling his history of substance abuse—he was even introduced by his former sponsor—Rep. Patrick Kennedy got loaded at a bar and was cut off after six shots of vodka. He seemed to have a good time though—a tipster tells Roll Call that Kennedy was...

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