Countless drugs are manufactured as generic equivalents to brand name counterparts. Generic drugs must be bioequivalent to the brand name drug, meaning that they contain the same active ingredient at the same dose, in the same dosage form, with the same route of administration. The rate and extent of availability of the drugs must also be identical. Brand name drugs and their generic equivalents are interchangeable, and have demonstrated the same therapeutic effectiveness in clinical trials. Generic drugs, however, may not contain identical inactive ingredients or have identical formulations, packaging, or appearance. Read more →

During the holiday season, I was reminded of the old myth that suicide rates increase over the holidays. This medical myth has been debunked numerous times and it was one of the topics covered in a recent BMJ story about medical myths. For many years, people believed this myth because they felt that the depression worsens when depressed patients see other happy and celebrating with friends and family. Plus, in many areas, the winter seasons may lead to more rain, cloudy weather, and gloomy days for people who may be susceptible to seasonal affective disorder (SAD). So how about suicide? How often do depressed patients commit suicide? And what prompts depressed individuals to the verge of suicide? This is a very complex topic that has no simple explanation. Read more →

Acute pain affects more than 25 million Americans each year, and is one of the primary reasons that people seek medical care. Acute pain may result from injury, trauma, surgery, or medical procedures, and can have significant emotional, cognitive, and sensory consequences. Though acute pain, by definition, is short-lived, it can have significant and detrimental effects on the patient’s quality of life and can lead to chronic pain if left untreated. Up to half of post-operative patients in the United States receive inadequate pain control. This leads to delayed mobilization and increased risk for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Read more →

When a new drug is approved and enters the marketplace, often the only safety and efficacy information available is based on a few thousand people who took the drug during strictly controlled clinical trials. Not surprisingly, these trials are designed to focus on the drugs’ benefits, and may not include a large enough sample size to elicit serious adverse effects. Once the drug is available for widespread use, we are able to better evaluate the real safety profile of the drug. Read more →

Alcohol use by underage college students has increasingly grown as a large issue across the United States. Excessive, or binge drinking among college students is associated with a variety of negative consequences, such as a decrease in academic productivity, unwanted sexual encounters and an increase in violent behavior.

Many colleges have made an attempt to examine the root cause of such extreme drinking by students, and have developed programs to deter students from consuming alcohol. Read more →

The cholesterol-lowering drugs collectively known as “statins” are among the top drugs sold in the United States, and worldwide. Although current guidelines only recommend the use of statins for people with elevated cholesterol, there is new evidence that these recommendations should be expanded. The November 20, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine will report the findings of the Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin (JUPITER), which were also reported on November 9 at an American Heart Association Conference in New Orleans. The JUPITER trial studied nearly 18,000 healthy adults without high cholesterol and found that daily therapy with rosuvastatin (Crestor) significantly prevented cardiovascular events. Read more →