Search results below include Worst Pills, Best Pills Newsletter Articles where your
selected drug is a primary subject of discussion.
July 2024
Adults aged 65 or older are at high risk of experiencing drug interactions and adverse events. This article highlights five drug classes that are associated with increased risks for older adults: benzodiazepines and Z drugs; anticholinergic medications; sulfonylureas, drugs for type 2 diabetes; cardiovascular and anti-thrombotic medications; and antipsychotics in older adults with dementia.
November 2022
Learn about the numerous prescription medications and some over-the-counter drugs that can cause psychotic symptoms, including hallucinations.
September 2022
Numerous prescription and over-the-counter drugs can cause or exacerbate urinary incontinence. Knowing which medications prescribed or recommended by your doctor cause urinary incontinence will allow you to take steps to prevent or minimize this common, troubling adverse drug effect.
May 2021
In September 2020, the FDA announced that it would require the manufacturers of all benzodiazepines to update the black-box warning (the strongest warning that the agency can require) for these drugs to describe risks of abuse, addiction and other related adverse reactions. Such action was long overdue.
December 2018
Learn how patients can initiate a discussion with their doctors to begin the process of weaning off benzodiazepines, a class of highly overprescribed sedative hypnotic drugs primarily used to treat anxiety and insomnia.
January 2018
Every year, more than 300,000 older Americans are hospitalized due to hip fractures, and almost all of these fractures are caused by falls. Read about new research further linking use of sleeping pills to an increased risk of falls and serious injury.
September 2016
Readers of Worst Pills, Best Pills News are aware that all benzodiazepine tranquilizers and sleeping pills, except for alprazolam (XANAX) and clonazepam (KLONOPIN), are now considered Do Not Use drugs. In this article, we explain why combining these drugs with opioid painkillers could kill you.
February 2016
Urinary incontinence, or loss of bladder control, is a common and often embarrassing problem that can have a huge impact on quality of life. Find out which drugs can cause this problem.
July 2014
For many years, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has recommended against using tranquilizers and sleeping pills to treat insomnia and anxiety. This article presents new evidence linking use of these drugs to an increased risk of premature death.
December 2013
We oppose the use of all sleeping pills, based on experts’ findings that “nonpharmacological treatments not only cause fewer side effects, but … can sustain long-term improvements more successfully than pharmacological treatments.” Read this article to learn about some suggested nondrug approaches.
January 2013
Find out the names of 11 different drugs in this popular family of tranquillizers and sleeping pills that can increase the risk of dementia 30 to 40 percent in older adults.
March 2011
The article reviews a study on the potentially dangerous, inappropriate prescribing of 77 drugs that pose a high risk to older adults. Of the 67 of these drugs that we had previously reviewed in Worst, Pills, Best Pills News, we had classified 60 (90 percent) of them as “Do Not Use,” and the other seven as "Limited Use."