Off-label drug use is the use of a drug for treatment of conditions for which it has not been officially approved, so the use for such conditions is not on the drugs official label. Off-label prescription of a drug is generally legal. However, the promotion of off-label uses by a drug manufacturer is [...]

Following a recommendation from the European Medicines Agency, the huge pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-Aventis has halted the sale of the anti-obesity drug Acomplia in the EU. Acomplia joins An ever growing list of approved drugs that are found to be high risk after approval
“The risks of taking Acomplia are now greater than the benefits that [...]

Over 4,000 deaths linked to drug adverse reactions during the quarter.
According to a new report from Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a non-profit consumer watchdog, “A record number of deaths and serious injuries associated with drug therapy were reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the first quarter of 2008.”
The report detailed [...]

A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute fiound that taking aspirin or ibuprofen may increase a woman’s breast cancer risk by 50%.
What they found was
1: Women who took ibuprofen daily for at least five years were about 50% more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than those who did not [...]

FDA to Post Quarterly Report of Potential Safety Issues. The first report lists 20 drugs along with the potential safety issue associated with each drug.
In a move that can only help consumers and medical professionals make better decisions about drugs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today that will begin posting lists certain [...]

Three warnings ignored, are doctors paying attention.
While three regulatory warnings of serious adverse events from anti-psychotic prescription drugs slowed the growth of use of atypical anti-psychotic drugs among elderly patients with dementia, they did not reduce the overall prescription rate of these drugs.
This stark finding comes from an analysis of prescription drug claims data in [...]

Problem seen in 1990s and risk increases with some painkillers according to new study.
The widely prescribed class of  antidepressants known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) appear to be associated with bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract, saya a study published in the medical journal Archives of General Psychiatry.  The study was led by researchers [...]

Short-Term Use of antipsychotics in older adults With dementia associated with serious adverse events.
Older adults with dementia who receive short-term courses of antipsychotic medications are more likely to be hospitalized or die than those who do not take the drugs, according to a report in Archives of Internal Medicine.
“Newer antipsychotic drugs (olanzapine, quetiapine fumarate and [...]

Cannabis and certain prescribed drugs can harm the developing brain according to research from
the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. show that the influence of this crucial signalling system in the developing brain is much more widespread than was originally thought.
The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, of the United States [...]

FDA is requiring the manufacturers of conventional antipsychotic drugs to add a Boxed Warning and Warning to the drugs’ prescribing information about the risk of mortality in elderly patients treated for dementia-related psychosis similar to the Boxed Warning and Warning added to the prescribing information of the atypical antipsychotic drugs in 2005
Considerations for Healthcare Professionals

Elderly [...]