The video begins with a teenage boy opening a cabinet to grab a bottle of prescription drugs. “A few little pills can’t hurt, right?’’ says the narrator. The teenager then is shown on the floor, apparently unconscious. The video, produced by George Walton Comprehensive High School students in Marietta, won a Georgia high school video…
My recent sinus infection came on suddenly and painfully. After diagnosing it, my physician e-prescribed me an antibiotic. This is tricky territory for me. I’m sensitive to some antibiotics. Years ago, I took a couple of varieties to treat similar infections, and wound up with oral thrush in one case and C. difficile in another….
A tall man wearing a green baseball cap recently entered a CVS pharmacy in Oakwood, intent on robbery. The man was not looking for cash. Instead, according to police, he demanded that the pharmacist give him Lortab and Percocet painkillers. He then grabbed drug bottles and prescription bags belonging to customers before fleeing the store,…
The fictional “Nurse Jackie,” in the Showtime series of the same name, is a very competent nurse in a busy emergency room. She’s also addicted to prescription painkillers: Percocet, Vicodin, OxyContin. This portrayal of addiction is jarring, but it’s not wildly unrealistic. Drug abuse among people in the health professions is reportedly about at the…
The young male patient had a diagnosis of chlamydia. Fran Beall, a nurse practitioner in Athens, prescribed a seven-day supply of doxycycline, a dependable antibiotic that’s long been generic and inexpensive. Shortly thereafter, a pharmacist called Beall and asked if she could prescribe another antibiotic for the young man, because he had no insurance. “Why?” Beall…
WellStar Health System and Walgreens announced an agreement Tuesday to collaborate on treating patients who seek care in eight health clinics run by the pharmacy chain in the northwest suburbs of Atlanta. WellStar said it will help handle patients’ health conditions that require a higher level of care than the Walgreens clinics provide. “We’re interested in expanding…
It’s time to go through those bathroom drawers and cabinets. Saturday is national Drug Take-Back Day. Georgia is again promoting the effort to prevent prescription pill abuse. Members of the public are encouraged to rid their homes of expired, unused or unwanted drugs. The CDC has reported that prescription drug abuse is the fastest-growing drug…
Seniors in the Southeast take more high-risk medications than their counterparts in other regions, a study has found. Nationally, about one in five people in Medicare Advantage plans take at least one of these dangerous drugs. But in many parts of the Southeast, including Georgia, the percentage of seniors in these plans taking high-risk medications…
Health literacy is becoming a Georgia priority — though there’s still plenty of room for improvement. The state’s schools of medicine, nursing, public health, dentistry, pharmacy and education, as well as community organizations, are all working on improving people’s ability to understand health information so they can make good decisions about their medical care. An…
A bill intended to crack down on ‘‘pill mills’’ in Georgia passed a key House committee unanimously Monday, after stirring testimony from a northwest Georgia coroner and a suburban Atlanta police chief. House Bill 178 would put pain management clinics under the regulation of Georgia’s medical board, which would issue licenses to their operators. And…