Prescription Medications

Adolescents who were prescribed medications and acknowledged having fooled around with them were more likely to abuse other drugs and to have sold, traded or given away their meds to friends, says a new study . A survey of 2,744 Detroit-area high school students found that, among those who had been prescribed a sleeping, pain, anti-anxiety or stimulant medication in the past year, 22% acknowledged having deliberately taken more of that medicine...

Here is how The Times matched doctors to their patients who died of prescription drug overdoses or related causes: Reporters examined coroners' records in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties and identified cases in which: Toxicology tests found a prescription drug in the deceased's system, usually a painkiller, anti-anxiety drug or other narcotic. Coroners' investigators reported finding a container of the same medication bearing the doctor's name, or records of a prescription.

Many of us take one or more prescription medications on a regular basis, but we don't always take them as directed by our doctor or pharmacist. Not following directions can be harmful to our health. Here are some tips to make sure you get the most out of your medications. Talk to Your Doctor or Pharmacist * Should the drug be taken with water, with food or on an empty stomach? * How much of the drug should you take each time and how frequently? * What should you do if you miss a dose?

The investigation into the death of Whitney Houston is shifting to a new phase, with officials focusing on the prescription drugs found in her hotel room and who prescribed them to her. Investigators are expected in the next few days to serve subpoenas on the doctors, as well as the pharmacies where Houston obtained the prescriptions, as they try to determine her cause of death, according to a source with knowledge of the case. Authorities collected several bottles of drugs from Houston's suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she was found dead Saturday.

The object in my palm was less than three inches of ordinary gray plastic with a tiny cartridge within containing enough measured doses for maybe one month. It did not look like $90. My doctor had told me to increase my use of the medication, a steroid anti-inflammatory, because she thought my asthma could be better controlled with more frequent administration.

"A Dose of Herbal Reform" (editorial, April 10) is way off the mark. Yes, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) sponsored the 1994 Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act, but it was the American people who pushed it through--via one of the largest grass-roots responses ever seen on Capitol Hill. Today, given our ailing health care system, the American people want free access to their dietary supplements more than ever. They want, whenever possible, natural alternatives to prescription medications.

If one doctor's prescriptions might be connected to the unnecessary deaths of multiple patients over several years, the state should be asking questions. Times reporters Scott Glover and Lisa Girion analyzed 3,733 prescription drug-related deaths in four Southern California counties, revealing that just 71 doctors - one-tenth of 1% in those counties - had written prescriptions in 17% of such fatalities over six years. One doctor profiled in the stories published Sunday had prescribed medications for 16 patients who subsequently overdosed, according to coroner's reports.

Many New Year's resolutions can keep you from needing prescription medications, including the commitments to stop smoking, exercise regularly, limit alcohol and fat intake, and lose weight (if you're overweight). But if you already have, or develop, problems that require prescription drugs, we'd like to suggest an additional resolution for 2002: Take your medication exactly the way it was prescribed. Misuse of medications (often referred to as noncompliance or non-adherence) is widespread.

New medications introduced in the past two decades have enabled seniors to live longer, healthier lives. And people older than 65, though they constitute 14% of the population, now take more than a third of all the prescription medications dispensed each year. But these medication advances are proving to be a double-edged sword.

Anna Nicole Smith spent the last days of her life drifting in and out of consciousness under the pale blue comforter of a king-sized hotel bed, too weak to walk, sit up or drink from anything other than a baby bottle, according to court testimony Tuesday. The description of the period preceding the supermodel's 2007 death from an overdose of a sedative and other drugs came on the opening day of a hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to try two physicians and Smith's boyfriend for conspiring to illegally furnish the 39-year-old with prescription medications.