by Eric Christianson | Oct 4, 2026 | Respiratory Medication and Disease State Clinical Pearls
A patient who keeps having asthma exacerbations can be frustrating to manage. It is easy to assume that the patient simply needs a stronger inhaler or additional medications. But before escalating therapy, it is important to figure out why the patient is not getting...
by Eric Christianson | Sep 30, 2026 | Neurology, Pain, and Musculoskeletal Case Studies
A 76-year-old patient with osteoarthritis is started on nabumetone (podcast) for chronic knee pain. A few weeks later, the patient reports that both legs and ankles are becoming swollen. The edema is attributed to “fluid retention,” and Lasix (furosemide) 20 mg daily...
by Eric Christianson | Sep 27, 2026 | Gastrointestinal Case Studies
A 79-year-old patient with newly diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease is started on Aricept (donepezil) 10 mg once daily. The prescription is written for 10 mg from the beginning rather than starting at 5 mg daily and increasing the dose after the patient has had time to...
by Eric Christianson | Sep 23, 2026 | Medication Errors
I’ve seen numerous errors where the patient thought something was a little off and said something to a healthcare professional. One of the most important medication safety tools in healthcare is listening to the patient. Patients will sometimes say things that...
by Eric Christianson | Sep 16, 2026 | Neurology, Pain, and Musculoskeletal Medication and Disease State Clinical Pearls
While tramadol is classified as an opioid, there are many practice pearls that make it unique from other traditional opioids. In this blog post, I’ll share my top 5 tramadol practice pearls. Tramadol has weak mu-opioid receptor activity, but it also inhibits the...
