NursingLink

 A new study raises fresh concerns about Zetia and its cousin, Vytorin — drugs still taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol, despite questions raised last year about how well they work. In the study, Zetia failed to shrink buildups in artery walls while a rival drug, Niaspan, did so significantly. Zetia users also suffered more heart attacks and other ...

Women who take the most common fertility drugs, progesterone and clomiphene, are at a greater risk to develop thyroid cancer than those who don't, according to a study by the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society. The 36-year study, which tracked thousands of women, discovered that women who took fertility drugs developed thyroid cancer at an increased rate over those ...

GAITHERSBURG, Md. - Federal health advisers said Monday an experimental kidney cancer drug from GlaxoSmithKline PLC can benefit patients by slowing the disease, despite some risk of liver damage. The Food and Drug Administration's cancer drug panel voted unanimously in favor of Glaxo's pazopanib pills for advanced kidney cancer, a rare but deadly form of the disease. Glaxo studies showed higher ...

The oral contraceptives Yaz and Yasmin are the top-selling pharmaceutical line for Bayer HealthCare, largely as a result of marketing that presents them as much more than mere pregnancy prevention. Yaz, in particular, the top-selling birth control pill in the United States, owes much of its popularity to multimillion-dollar ad campaigns that have promoted the drug as a quality-of-life treatment to ...

TRENTON, N.J. - Drugmaker Wyeth on Wednesday sued the Food and Drug Administration to block the sale of a generic rival to its intravenous antibiotic Zosyn, claiming the generic is not an equivalent product and could harm critically ill patients. Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth filed a federal lawsuit against the FDA, seeking both a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. The ...

WASHINGTON - Federal health officials said Wednesday a long-delayed vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline successfully blocks the leading virus that causes cervical cancer in women. The Food and Drug Administration's vaccine panel voted overwhelmingly that the vaccine Cervarix appears safe and effective for girls and women ages 10 to 25. If the FDA follows the group's advice, Glaxo would begin competing against Merck's ...

A Pymatuning Township man has been accused of taking prescription painkillers for his own use from UPMC Horizon, Greenville, where he worked as a registered nurse. Michael K. Miller, 47, of 1703 Park Lane, was charged by the state Attorney General's office with acquisition of a controlled substance by fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge, which is a felony, and possession of ...

Nikole Montez delivered her first baby 18 weeks early. Her son weighed just 14 ounces and had a heartbeat, which soon stopped. When the Aberdeen woman became pregnant again a year later, her insurer, Molina Healthcare, the state's largest Medicaid contractor, identified her as a candidate for a novel therapy: synthetic hormone shots to prevent a recurrent -- and sometimes hugely ...

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first drug to treat infantile spasms, a rare disorder that can cause hundreds of seizures per day in children less than a year old. Sabril is an oral solution from Deerfield, Ill.-based Lundbeck Inc. approved for children between the ages of 1 month and 2 years. Infantile spasms usually occur ...

Nearly half of the inmates at the Houston County Jail are on medications, with some of them taking up to 10 drugs a day. The load -- and the consistently full house at the jail -- has led Sheriff Andy Hughes to ask the county commission to increase the hours of the jail pharmacist from 20 hours a month to 20 ...

The Food and Drug Administration issued a public health advisory Tuesday, warning consumers to stop using products touted as containing steroids or steroid-like substances, many of which are labeled as dietary supplements. The advisory came five days after FDA investigators, led by Jeff Novitzky of the BALCO probe, raided the California offices of American Cellular Labs, looking for evidence the company ...

LONDON – Thousands of people with schizophrenia worldwide could have been saved if doctors had prescribed them the anti-psychotic drug clozapine, a new study says. Clozapine was introduced in the 1970s, but was banned for about a decade because of a rare but potentially deadly side effect: up to 2 percent of patients lose their white blood cells while taking the ...

CHICAGO — Proposed limits on Tylenol, a painkiller as common as pain itself, have left many consumers fearful, confused and wondering where to turn for relief. The potential government crackdown on acetaminophen, Tylenol's main ingredient, would affect everyone from occasional pill poppers to chronic pain sufferers who rely on daily doses to make their lives more bearable. If adopted by the ...

Proposed limits on Tylenol, a painkiller as common as pain itself, have left many consumers fearful, confused and wondering where to turn for relief.

The smoking cessation drugs Chantix and Zyban must now carry a boxed warning -- the strongest type possible -- about the risk of serious mental health problems, including depression, behavior changes and suicidal thoughts, the Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday. These have occurred in people with and without underlying psychiatric illnesses as well as those still smoking, Curt Rosebraugh, head ...

While the Urgent Care clinic claims to provide fast and affordable health care for non-emergency medical needs, the McAlester facility can now claim to be on the cutting edge when it comes to doling out prescription drugs. Say hello to InstyMeds. InstyMeds is a fully automated ATM-style machine that dispenses prescription medications directly to patients immediately before leaving the office. The ...

Government experts say prescription drugs like Vicodin and Percocet that combine a popular painkiller with stronger narcotics should be eliminated because of their role in deadly overdoses. A Food and Drug Administration panel on Tuesday voted 20-17 that prescription drugs that combine acetaminophen with other painkilling ingredients should be pulled off the market.  

BASEL, Switzerland – Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis AG said Friday it has successfully produced a first batch of swine flu vaccine weeks ahead of expectations. The vaccine was made in cells, rather than grown in eggs as is usually the case with vaccines, the company said. The announcement comes a day after the World Health Organization declared swine flu, also known ...

Lead in ginkgo pills. Arsenic in herbals. Bugs in a baby's colic and teething syrup. Toxic metals and parasites are part of nature, and all of these have been found in "natural" products and dietary supplements in recent years. Set aside the issue of whether vitamin and herbal supplements do any good. Are they safe? Is what's on the label really ...

Busy with other chores, Kathryn Pauley asked her 16-year-old to pick up younger daughter Cheyenne's seizure medicine at a pharmacy. To her surprise, Pauley found a generic drug, not Lamictal, a brand-name drug that had effectively controlled most of Cheyenne's seizures. In the next week, Cheyenne, 11, had 21 seizures -- many more than usual. The switch occurred even though Cheyenne's ...