Drug Withdrawal
A surprising variety of medications can cause withdrawal symptoms if stopped too abruptly. Even certain over-the-counter drugs can cause such problems.
Are You “Addicted” to Your Prescription Medi…
Before you read another word, rethink the term addiction! It is loaded with emotional baggage and is a terrible description of drug dependence. It often implies character flaws or vulnerability and fr…
Getting Off Omeprazole Can Be Challenging!
Most people assume that over-the-counter heartburn medicines are completely safe. Why else would the FDA allow them to be sold without a prescription? The trouble is that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)…
Why Is Pharmacy Pushing to Refill Prescriptions?
Sometimes the decisions a business makes appear obvious, but at other times you wonder why they make particular choices. We are all familiar with pharmacies as the place to fill a prescription that th…
How to Beat Nose Spray Dependence One Nostril at…
Decongestant nose spray is fabulous when your nasal passages are so congested you can't breathe. Just a spritz can open clogged sinuses. However, such nasal sprays have a big downside: nose spray addi…
What Pharmacists Don’t Tell You
This critical perspective is from retired pharmacist, Dennis Miller. There’s a huge amount of important information about drugs that pharmacists rarely discuss with customers. Chances are you feel y…
Deprescribing: Can You Ever Stop Taking So Many …
Once a doctor prescribes a medication, there is a good chance you will be on it for months, years or even decades. This is especially true for chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension or high ch…
Stopping Zolpidem (Ambien) for Insomnia Can Be C…
Tens of millions of Americans have a hard time getting a good night’s sleep. They are caught in a terrible double bind. On one hand, they know that their health may suffer if they don't get enough s…
Benzodiazepine Dependence | A Hard Habit to Kick
When most people hear the words “drug abuse” they think of opioids like oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl or heroin. Other contenders include stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine (“meth”…
Can You Get Off a PPI Without Suffering Heartbur…
Have you ever tried to get off a PPI like esomeprazole (Nexium) or lansoprazole (Prevacid)? If so, you might have experienced rebound heartburn. People who encounter this problem–and many do–may f…
People in Pain Need Access to Suicide Hotline Nu…
When a reader calls us on an important omission, we try to correct our error. That happened recently when we wrote about the CDC guidelines for opioid use. We were so focused on access to adequate pai…
Do Doctors Know How to Help Patients Stop Medica…
Starting a new prescription is easy. If your doctor tells the pharmacist to write on the label, "take once a day with food," you know exactly what to do. Most people can manage such a simple instructi…
Are People In Pain Committing Suicide For Lack o…
The opioid epidemic has been with us for decades. It has resulted in untold misery and death. The pandemic only made matters worse. Overdose deaths spiked, in part because the synthetic opioid fentany…
What’s Up with Paxlovid COVID Rebound Infectio…
When Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir + ritonavir) was given emergency use authorization (EUA) on December 22, 2021, by the FDA, there was a lot of excitement. At long last, there was an oral anti-viral medicin…
Zyrtec Withdrawal Is a Nightmare
Cetirizine (Zyrtec) is an antihistamine often used to treat allergies, nasal congestion or hives. It is considered a second-generation non-sedating antihistamine. In other words, it doesn't make you d…
Show 1315: Are We Medicating Normal Emotions?
This week on our nationally syndicated radio show, we examine the consequences of prescriptions for anxiety or grief. All of us, at some point in our lives, will experience some of these emotions. If …
Duloxetine (Cymbalta) Side Effects & Withdr…
We have received so many complaints about duloxetine (Cymbalta) side effects that we have lost count. Far more disturbing are the number of people who tell us how hard it is to discontinue this drug. …
Stopping Duloxetine (Cymbalta) Suddenly Flipped …
Antidepressants like desvenlafaxine (Pristiq), duloxetine (Cymbalta), sertraline (Zoloft) and venlafaxine (Effexor) have become extremely popular. Millions take such drugs regularly. We have even seen…
Prednisone Withdrawal: Can You Ever Stop Cortico…
Corticosteroids are powerful double-edged swords. One side of the blade is beneficial. It can save lives. The other side can do incredible harm. Balancing the benefits against the risks of drugs like …
How to Sleep During Anxious Times
This is a terrible time to be an insomniac. Headlines about COVID are designed to provoke anxiety. Contentious political clashes and war make the nighttime news distressing. Cold or rainy weather can …
Prozac Poop Out and Other Drug Drop Offs
Why do drugs stop working? That is a question that has plagued doctors for decades. When antidepressant medications like fluoxetine no longer control depression, we call it Prozac Poop Out. If a once …
How Dangerous Is It to Stop Taking Aspirin?
Aspirin gets very little respect. Perhaps that's because it is well over 100 years old, or because it is inexpensive and available over the counter. Whatever the reason, it's our observation that peop…
How To Stop Duloxetine (Cymbalta) Without Withdr…
Based on what we hear from readers of our syndicated newspaper column and visitors to this website, most patients are not warned about how to stop duloxetine (Cymbalta). Perhaps the prescriber assumes…
Stopping Zyrtec (Cetirizine) Led to Itchy Nightm…
Over six years ago we heard from a reader who had used the antihistamine cetirizine (Zyrtec) to ease allergy symptoms. In preparation for allergy tests he tried stopping Zyrtec. He noted that: "w…
Stopping Antihistamine Leads to Unbelievable Itc…
Every so often, doctors discover something from their own experience as patients that they didn't learn in medical school and haven't heard from their colleagues. Often, the symptoms of withdrawa…
Zolpidem for Insomnia | COVID-Related Anxiety
Under the best of conditions, tens of millions of people have trouble getting a decent night’s sleep. These days, though, it’s harder than ever. News about the coronavirus is nonstop. People have …
Gabapentin Risks for Persistent Shoulder Pain?
People in pain are suffering…not just from the pain but also from the treatments that are being offered. Opioids have developed such a terrible reputation that most physicians are reluctant to presc…
Stopping Ultracet (Tramadol + Acetaminophen) Led…
Almost everyone has heard about the opioid epidemic. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Every day, more than 130 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids.” …
Decongestant Spray Addiction is Hard to Kick
When your nose is stopped up because of a cold or allergies, you feel awful. Breathing through your mouth when you are trying to sleep can be especially challenging. It’s hardly surprising that peop…
Why Popular Heartburn Drugs PPIs Are Linked to P…
Millions of people take proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) to suppress the secretion of stomach acid. At last count, doctors wrote over 100 million prescriptions for drugs like dexlansoprazole (Dexilent), …
Will CBD Help Opioid Addicts Kick Their Habits?
Cannabidiol, known as CBD, may help opioid addicts kick their habits. Many people are enthusiastic about this compound derived from Cannabis. It is showing up in all kinds of products, mostly without …
New Concerns About Gabapentin and Pregabalin (Ly…
A recent review of the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) reveals some disconcerting data about commonly prescribed drugs for nerve pain (ISMP QuarterWatch Reports (March 27, 2019). This i…
How To Stop Venlafaxine: Very, VERY Slowly!
It has taken the medical profession a very long time to acknowledge that many of the most popular drugs in the pharmacy can cause a kind of dependence. By that we mean such drugs can precipitate serio…
Show 1153: How to Listen to TV Drug Commercials
If you watch television, you can’t avoid TV drug commercials for maladies from type 2 diabetes to auto-immune diseases like psoriasis or rheumatoid arthritis to refractory cancers. Do you see these …
What Is the Other Drug Epidemic?
Much has been written about the epidemic of opioid drug misuse, overdose and death. With more than 130 people dying every day in this country as a result of opioid overdose, we all have a right to be …
Can You Overcome an Afrin Addiction?
Have you ever become addicted to your nasal spray? Millions of people do. Decongestant nasal sprays can be used safely for only a few days before they start to produce rebound congestion that can be q…
Getting Off Venlafaxine Can Be Incredibly Challe…
Many years ago we heard from a reader who was trying to get off alprazolam (Xanax). It was not commonly recognized that short-acting benzodiazepines (benzos) could pose unbearable withdrawal symptoms …
The Zyrtec Itch is Unbearable | Where’s th…
We first heard about the Zyrtec itch over eight years ago. A reader reported horrible itching within three days of stopping Zyrtec (cetirizine is the generic name for this antihistamine). He reported …
Why Is Antidepressant Withdrawal So Hard?
It is estimated that one out of every eight Americans takes an antidepressant medication (JAMA Internal Medicine, Feb. 2017). According to the New York Times, roughly 25 million Americans have been ta…
Stopping Duloxetine Leads to Terrible Withdrawal…
Before anyone starts taking an antidepressant, the prescriber should give them some guidance on how to quit. As it turns out, getting off a medication like duloxetine can be extremely difficult becaus…
How Long Will Dizziness Last After Stopping Lexa…
It is always smart to have an exit strategy. That is just as true when you begin taking a prescription medication as when you take a new job that might or might not be quite suitable. One reader found…