Articles Index
Lunesta for Chronic Insomnia
Lunesta was approved by the FDA in December 2004 to treat insomnia. Lunesta - generic eszopiclone - is a non-benzodiazepine hypnotic agent. Lunesta has also received approval to be prescribed without the recommendation that use be limited to less than two weeks.
Grinding Teeth?
Do you grind your teeth or clench your jaws? Perhaps you are struggling with bruxism, which is the medical term for the usually unconscious behavior of grinding teeth. Frustration, stress, tension, anxiety, and suppressed anger are usually considered the culprits of this difficulty. However, grinding teeth can also be attributed to some medications.
Medications for Bipolar Disorder: An Overview
Medications are the standard and proven treatment for bipolar disorder. Sometimes a patient can be stabilized on a single prescription drug, but more often a combination of medications - often called a "med cocktail" - is needed. The drugs included in that combination depend on each person's unique symptoms, body and brain chemistry, and other factors including such things as what prescriptions the patient is taking for other conditions.
Be Careful About Cold Medicine Interactions with Prescriptions
Before taking any over-the-counter cold or flu remedy, you need to be aware of the possible cold medicine interactions with your prescriptions. Pretty much every class of drug used to treat psychiatric conditions – antidepressants, antipsychotics, tranquilizers, anticonvulsants, etc. – have potential cold medicine interactions that can complicate your disorder or even be dangerous.
Just What Is a Medication Expiration Date?
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gives over-sight to the current good manufacturing practices for medications, which includes their expiration dates. An expiration date is the point at which a manufacturer can no longer guarantee the strength or safety of a medication. How is this date determined?
When Do Medications Actually Expire?
Somewhere along the way I picked up the notion that medication expiration dates or beyond-use dates aren't really that important. Is this correct? Should we toss our old prescription and over-the-counter medications when the dates say? In this article, we look at some of the facts and the current research on this topic.
About Stopping Your Meds
Experiences and insights from bipolar people who have gone off all medications at some time in their lives, from our Speaking from Experience series.
Are Beyond-Use Dates Different Than Expiration Dates?
US Pharmacopeia -- the official public standards-setting authority for all prescription and over-the-counter medicines and other health care products manufactured or sold in the United States -- recommends the practice of beyond-use dates. A beyond-use date is the date placed on a prescription bottle by a pharmacy noting when that prescription should no longer be used. How does this affect your prescriptions?
What Are Antidepressants? Antidepressant Types / Classes
It's obvious from the name that antidepressants are medications to relieve depression, but what are all the different types or classes? There are SSRIs, SNRIs and SSNRIs; there are MAOIs and tricyclics; and then there are a few just lumped into the category of atypical antidepressants. From Prozac to Cymbalta, from Elavil to Parnate, from Effexor to Zoloft, antidepressants come in more shapes and sizes than jelly beans!
10 Medication Safety Tips
Ten tips for medication safety -- how to avoid problems with prescriptions, pharmacy errors, difficulties with generic medications, drug interactions and more.
Generic Drugs - Friend or Foe?
This article discusses why generic medications can be sold at a far lower cost than their brand name counterparts, what the standards are for production of generic drugs, and why generics may cause problems not experienced with the brand name medication.
What Is a Drug?
Many terms are used for the various agents we take to treat and aid the aspects of our health. It is, unfortunately, common for people to confuse various terms –- drug, medication/medicine, prescription, over-the-counter, herbal remedy, dietary supplement –- thinking that some words inherently mean a substance is safe. However, there are rather blurry lines between the various categories of agents so just what do these terms mean?
My Doctor Is Ignoring Medication Side Effects!
You have started a new medication and are experiencing unpleasant side effects. The side effects have not gone away in time and may have gotten worse. Your doctor or psychiatrist who prescribed the medication dismisses your concerns and will not discuss changing medications. What should you do?
Tamoxifen - Serendipity for Bipolar Disorder?
Breast cancer research with the drug tamoxifen has provided an unexpected bonus in the research of drugs to treat mania in bipolar disorder.
Driving Under the Influence
I am writing to share with you a harsh lesson I learned through a personal experience. I hope my incident will help others avoid a similar debacle. DUI means driving under the influence of not only alcohol and illegal drugs, but also medications prescribed by our doctors. If you don't know your meds, find out about them. Then get a second opinion before you get behind the wheel of a car!
Trying Out Lunesta
I was asked to participate in a 10-day clinical study of the sleep medication Lunesta, which the manufacturer had commissioned to get consumer feedback about the drug. With my history I was a good subject for the study.
Managing and Remembering Medications
People who have bipolar disorder share their ideas for how to manage and remember to take daily medications. From the About Bipolar Disorder 'Speaking from Experience' series.