A 53-year-old male presents to the emergency department with severe agitation, fever, and symptoms of delirium. The attending provider assesses the patient and gets a urine drug screen. The drug screen was positive for cocaine. In addition to the psychiatric symptoms,...
As a geriatric pharmacist, I can’t tell you the number of times I have seen amlodipine prescribed with the subsequent addition (usually a few weeks later) of furosemide. It is finally nice to have some solid evidence to back up what I have anecdotally seen in...
Why do patients stop taking medications? I’ve spent a lot of time and effort working with patients to improve their drug therapy, but it really doesn’t matter if they don’t actually take the medication that is best for them. Here’s a list of the most common reasons...
In this scenario, I review how medications can increase the blood clot risk. A 66 year old female is taking the following medications. Aspirin 81 mg dailyLamotrigine 100 mg BIDApixaban 5 mg BIDAcetaminophen 500 mg BIDPantoprazole 40 mg dailyBaclofen 10 mg...
A 69-year-old female is concerned with hair loss. She states that she does not have a family history of this issue and believes that her medications might be to blame. Her primary provider does not feel as if the hair loss is due to a medical issue (i.e....
I often find patients on numerous bedtime cocktails and this is often a situation where medications were slowly added over time for recurring symptoms of the same syndrome. A 79-year-old female at a long term care facility has had a long history of having aches and...
