Medications Archive

People who have been taking antidepressants for some time may wish to stop taking them due to unpleasant side effects. This can be accomplished, but it is best to taper the dosage slowly and be aware of the potential for discontinuation symptoms.

Osteoarthritis in the hand is a painful condition that is more common in women than in men. While this condition can be debilitating, a number of strategies can be used to manage it, including using various topical, oral, and injected pain medications; splinting the joint; making lifestyle changes; and working with a hand therapist. Surgery may be an option when other measures have failed to control symptoms.

The medical world agrees that daily aspirin can help people with cardiovascular disease lower their risk of heart attacks and strokes. However, most people over age 70 without cardiovascular disease should avoid aspirin as a way to prevent a heart attack or stroke. Even if a person has taken aspirin for a long time as primary prevention of heart disease, it's time to talk to your doctor about potentially stopping it.

A placebo response (improvement in symptoms from the act of taking a drug independent of its biological effects) is not fully understood. Still, placebos are commonly used in clinical trials to test the effectiveness of a specific therapy.

A study published online Feb. 16, 2022, by the European Heart Journal suggests that the prevalence of statin intolerance is much lower than commonly cited. Instead of 50%, the study found that prevalence is 6% to 10%.

High doses of the popular pain reliever acetaminophen (Tylenol) may raise blood pressure when taken for two weeks.

Hair loss is a common problem for many men and women, but what does it mean to have alopecia? Alopecia areata occurs when the body's immune system attacks hair follicles, resulting in hair loss. AA can affect the scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, or anywhere hair grows on the body.

Many conditions of the gastrointestinal tract are easy to diagnose using standard testing. But some such diseases can impact the GI tract without a clear test finding. Disorders of gut-brain interaction are so called because they involve impaired communication between the gut and brain via the nervous system.