Erm, apparently, that's actually fer serious ( Read more... )

Ok, I know I have a number of friends/family members who have difficulty affording their medications. Not all of these links will work for everyone, but here are some resources to try for medications assistance programs and savings cards that I hope will help!

Partnership for Prescription Assistance
http://www.pparx.org/

Needy Meds
http://www.needymeds ( Read more... )

For those of you outside Dane County, here are some Wisconsin options for proper drug disposal.

Of course, any of you are welcome to give me your meds and I can add them to my collection. The next disposal date is in June, but I collect all year round.

There have been some recent recalls of Tylenol, which has now spread to include several other products as well. The cliff notes of the situation is that there is a wood pallet chemical that has gotten into some of the bottles during the shipping and storage process and thus far has seemed to cause minor, limited illness in some people. It’s not ( Read more... )

I need to have the formulary done by the open of business tomorrow morning, so I'm spending the night sitting in the ambition-sucking chair and agonizing over the minutiae of a 5,000 line Excel document and its multitude of appendices. *sigh ( Read more... )

The “flu” vaccine

Let’s start with the big one. The “flu shot” you get every year (you did get it, didn’t you?) does not protect against the winter puking nastiness. The “flu shot” is actually an immunization that protects against influenza - a respiratory disease that can be very serious, particularly in the very young, elderly, or otherwise ( Read more... )

For those of you not in Dane county, there is now also a mail order Med Drop option offered for Waukesha and Winnebago counties. This is not something we can use here in Dane at this time, but it may be useful information for you to pass along to family members outside the immediate area. 

Most insurance companies use a formulary, a list of drugs they normally approve and the rules that are followed when using those drugs.  Usually, those medications are chosen by the insurance company based on how well they work and how much they cost. Medicare Part D plans are a little different than normal commercial plans - the government ( Read more... )

OK - a little professional rant here about the evils of the drug companies. Stick with me - this is longish and delves into chemistry and molecular structures, but I promise it will make sense and be worth it in the end.

When drugs lose their patent and generics are about to hit the market, the Evil Drug Companies have several nasty little tricks ( Read more... )

Commercial Features of Placebo and Therapeutic Efficacy

"It is possible that the therapeutic efficacy of medications is affected by commercial features such as lower prices... Each participant was informed by brochure about a (purported) new opioid analgesic approved by the Food and Drug Administration; it was described as similar to codeine ( Read more... )