Search results below include Worst Pills, Best Pills Newsletter Articles where your
selected drug is a secondary subject of discussion.
November 2020
In this month’s Question & Answer feature, we respond to a reader’s question asking about our recommended alternatives to the opioid analgesic tramadol (CONZIP, ULTRACET, ULTRAM), which we have designated as Do Not Use.
August 2019
The FDA has approved five medications for treatment of cold sores — sometimes referred to as fever blisters, oral herpes or herpes labialis. Find out which of these drugs offer the most benefit.
June 2011
This article lists 355 drugs with names that are often confused with similar-sounding drug names. Find out what you can do to prevent getting the wrong drug.
March 2009
The article lists 57 different drugs that can cause dementia if used. This can be even more problematic if more than one of these drugs is being taken. These drugs are only one class of drugs that can cause mental deterioration and next month's issue will discuss additional drugs that can also impair thinking.
August 2008
The article discusses 273 drugs that can have harmful interactions with alcohol. Also reviewed are several ways in which these harmful interactions can occur:
1/ Medications Can Increase Alcohol Blood Levels
2/ Additive effects of medications and alcohol. One of the best- known drug-alcohol interactions is when alcohol, a depressant, is taken with other sedative medications, and excessive sedation or depression of respiration can occur
3/Alcohol can increase the blood levels of some medications leading to toxicity of these drugs.
4/ Alcohol also can reduce blood levels of some medications causing them to be less effective.
Although some of the interactions between alcohol and medications mainly occur in people who drink heavily (three or more drinks on one occasion), many of these interactions may occur with much lower amounts of alcohol use, such as one to two drinks on an occasion.
We strongly urge you to tell your physicians and other health care providers how much alcohol you are drinking so they can effectively assess the risks and advise you about the safe use of alcohol and medications.
January 2008
More than 70 million prescriptions a year are filled for these popular antidepressants, including Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Luvox, Celexa and Lexapro. This article gives details about more than 60 other widely prescribed prescription drugs that can have harmful interactions if used with these antidepressants. The two different kinds of interactions are also discussed.
May 2007
A few months ago the FDA warned about the potential of methadone - when used to treat pain - to cause life-threatening breathing problems and heart rhythm disturbances. When it made this safety announcement, however, the FDA negligently failed to point out that they had recommended a drastic reduction in the starting dose for pain to prevent some of these life-threatening adverse reactions. The new recommended starting dose is more than a 2.5 fold reduction in the dosage for the initial treatment of pain. Symptoms of overdose with the older, higher doses are discussed in the article.