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Tag: side effects

  • Over 200 Common Medications May Cause Depression, Study Warns

    Over 200 Common Medications May Cause Depression, Study Warns

    The researchers described the study as the first to successfully prove that when common drugs are used at the same time, the risk for adverse side effects rises.

    More than one-third of American adults take medications that might trigger depression and thoughts of suicide, ABC News reported.

    According to a new study, more than 200 common drugs, including birth control pills, antacids and beta blockers for blood pressure, are regularly taken despite their known side effects.

    Conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the study examined how 26,000 people used their prescription medications over a nine-year period.

    Researchers first asked the study’s participants to report on the drugs they’d taken in the past month, and then screened them for depression.

    By 2014 (the last year of the study), 38% of all U.S. adults were taking at least one drug with adverse effects. Seven percent of the people who used one of those drugs, the study found, suffered from depression. Perhaps not surprisingly, depression increased with the number of drugs people take at the same time.

    Depression was reported in 9% of the people who took two drugs and in 15% of adults who took three or more at the same time. (Only 5% of the people not taking any of the commonly used drugs had depression.)

    The researchers described their study as the first to successfully prove that when common drugs are used at the same time (termed “polypharmacy”), the risk for adverse side effects rises.

    “The takeaway message of this study is that polypharmacy can lead to depressive symptoms and that patients and health care providers need to be aware of the risk of depression that comes with all kinds of common prescription drugs—many of which are also available over the counter,” said Dima Qato, the study’s lead researcher. “Many may be surprised to learn that their medications, despite having nothing to do with mood or anxiety or any other condition normally associated with depression, can increase their risk of experiencing depressive symptoms, and may lead to a depression diagnosis.”

    As ABC News observed, doctors and health care providers may be blind to depression and suicide risks because the drugs are so common. 

    Not everyone, however, is convinced the study makes its case.

    “It’s hard to prove this link with this type of research. It could in fact be that the drugs are leading to depression. However, it could be that people had pre-existing depression,” Dr. Tara Narula told CBS This Morning. “It could be the chronic conditions they’re taking the medications for… [that is] what’s causing depression and not the drugs.”

    And while Dr. Narula recommended that people read their drugs’ packaging, Dr. Qato counters that very few drugs actually carry warning labels, which only further puts people at risk.

    Qato suggested that depression-recognizing software may be a solution, as it could identify dangerous drug interactions. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • CDC Warns of Blood-Thinning Synthetic Marijuana Strain

    CDC Warns of Blood-Thinning Synthetic Marijuana Strain

    The strain can lead to “unexplained bleeding such as coughing up blood, blood in the urine, bloody nose and bleeding gums.”

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning about the dangers of a certain strain of synthetic marijuana.

    The synthetic marijuana, the CDC says, is covered in a powder form of rodenticide called brodifacoum.

    “It’s like what you buy at the store to kill rats underneath your house,” Katie Seely of the Arkansas Department of Health Public Health Lab told THV11.

    According to the CDC, the strain can lead to “unexplained bleeding such as coughing up blood, blood in the urine, bloody nose and bleeding gums.”

    When ingested by humans, brodifacoum will thin the blood. “We have seen teenagers with heart attacks. We’ve seen coma, we’ve seen death. We’ve seen renal failure. So it runs the gambit,” Seely told THV11. 

    Seely also said that even calling the synthetic strain marijuana is misleading. “The synthetic cannabinoids are a lot more potent and a lot more dangerous in general than the marijuana is,” Seely said.

    While brodifacoum is the same type of drug sometimes prescribed by doctors, it’s dangerous when taken if not needed. “Brodifacoum is the same type of drug as warfarin and coumadin, which a lot of people take as blood thinners if they’ve had some heart conditions,” Seely said. “But that is monitored by a physician and it has to be monitored very closely.”

    The Arkansas Department of Health states that if a person has ingested this strain of synthetic marijuana and then gets in some type of accident, their blood may not coagulate correctly, which can be fatal. 

    “We don’t ever want to scare parents,” Seely said. “The synthetic cannabinoids have been around for a while, and unfortunately, they’re not going to go away. It’s one of those things, just know what your kids are up to.”

    This strain of synthetic marijuana isn’t the only one to be aware of.

    On May 19, more than a dozen people in Brooklyn, New York were taken to the hospital after taking what authorities believe to be a toxic batch of the synthetic drug “Spice” or “K2” which is made to imitate (poorly) the effects of THC in marijuana. 

    According to the New York Times, a witness says the effects were immediate. 

    “They would take two puffs and bam, they’d drop right there,” she said. “People just started falling to the ground. Right here, there were three strewn on the sidewalk. Over there, two more. The medics were here working until 9 pm.”

    Despite some being found unconscious and having difficulty breathing, all those hospitalized are expected to survive. They were all treated with the opioid overdose antidote naloxone. 

    While synthetic cannabinoids are banned in nearly all U.S. states, the New York Times notes, it is still a struggle to eradicate them, as what they are made up of is always changing.

    “These are synthetic drugs that are manufactured with remarkable creativity such that lawmakers are facing challenges in keeping ahead,” Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD police officer and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told the Times. “Restricting access to one ingredient touches off a search for a replacement. If you can whip up an intoxicating or stimulating substance readily and legally available, you can avoid prosecution.”

    View the original article at thefix.com