Caution When Dosing Anesthetic Medications

Anesthetic considerations for the new antiobesity medications.

Combination drug therapy can effectively treat the problem of obesity. The most commonly used combination is a mix of fenfluramine and phentermine. Fenfluramine inhibits the reuptake of serotonin and acts on the hypothalmic appetite control center, while phentermine acts as an appetite suppressant. These drugs along with diet and exercise effectively help people to lose weight with few side eff...

Bedtime dosing of antihypertensive medications reduces cardiovascular risk in CKD.

Time of ingestion of hypertension medications can affect circadian patterns of BP, but whether this translates into an effect on clinical outcomes is unknown. Here, in an open-label trial, we randomly assigned 661 patients with CKD either to take all prescribed hypertension medications upon awakening or to take at least one of them at bedtime. We measured 48-hour ambulatory BP at baseline and 3...

Dosing Recommendations for Concomitant Medications During 3D Anti-HCV Therapy.

The development of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) agents has reinvigorated the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection. The availability of multiple DAA agents and drug combinations has enabled the transition to interferon-free therapy that is applicable to a broad range of patients. However, these DAA combinations are not without drug-drug interactions (DDIs). As every possible DDI permutation...

Physician communication when prescribing new medications.

BACKGROUND Communication about taking a new medication is critical to proper use of drug therapy and to patient adherence. Despite ample evidence that medications are not taken as prescribed, few investigations have detailed the elements of communication about new medication therapy. This article describes and assesses the quality of physician communication with patients about newly prescribed ...

When are effective medications just too expensive?