No one wants a hacking cough for days or weeks on end. But research shows that it generally takes about 18 days to get over a standard cough-based illness. Most of us grow impatient after a week or so and head to the doctor to get a prescription. The problem with that recourse, however, is [...]

When doctors take patients off of a prescription medicine, it is often for a good reason. But pharmacists don’t always get the memo. A new study finds that more than 1 in 100 discontinued prescriptions were filled by the pharmacy anyway, putting some patients at serious risk. In the U.S., pharmacists filled more than 3.7 [...]

Antibiotics have been a boon to modern pediatric medicine—transforming many previously fatal childhood ailments into mere inconveniences. But these revolutionary treatments are not a cure-all. In fact, many common pediatric illnesses, including many ear and respiratory infections, fail to respond to antibiotics. And over-prescription of these meds—especially broad-spectrum antibiotics—is not only costly; it can also [...]

Take two of these—or should that be three? Or one? Congress recently took steps to improve the safety of children’s drugs. Now, a new study finds that those on the other end of the age spectrum also frequently receive medication that may put their health at risk. Approximately 20 percent of prescriptions that primary care [...]

It’s no secret that many doctors get paid by pharmaceutical companies to talk to other docs—about general conditions, research trends or specific drugs—or to provide expertise for company research. But what has long been undisclosed is the amount of money that these drugmakers were giving physicians for their time. Thanks in part to some high-profile [...]

As hospitals struggle to integrate electronic medical records, some have already instituted electronic drug ordering systems to help reduce prescription errors. But not all so-called computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems are specially tuned to different patient populations. And while some can catch potentially dangerous drug-drug interactions for individuals, only one has been alerting providers [...]

Clinical trials to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of new drugs are expensive investments for pharmaceutical companies and other funding organizations—and failures can mean scrapping years of pricey work and going back to the drawing board. Perhaps it is little wonder then that this industry has backed a higher percentage of clinical trials with positive [...]

Would you feel better if, besides giving you a pill, your doctor also explained some potential benefits? It’s quite likely, according to research from placebo effect studies from the past couple of decades. But an international group of researchers, led by Damien Finniss of the University of Sydney Pain Management and Research Institute in Australia, [...]

Consumer advertisements for at least one popular prescription drug have failed to stimulate increased sales among those on Medicaid, but the ads do seem to have upped the medicine’s price tag, a new study claims, raising policy questions about the direct-to-consumer marketing approach. The research found that running direct-to-consumer ads for Plavix (clopidogrel), a popular [...]