Drugs and prescribing

1,242 articles · Since 2007

Physicians writing on KevinMD about the drugs they prescribe and the ones they cannot get: prior authorization and step therapy, opioid prescribing and the tapers that followed the CDC guideline, the GLP-1 drugs from Ozempic to oral Wegovy and what happens when patients stop them, shortages, compounded versions, and what a prescription costs the patient. Three maintained records draw on this archive: Opioids: what physicians and pain patients say, in their own words, Prior authorization: what physicians say, in their own words, and GLP-1 drugs: what physicians say about Ozempic and its successors, in their own words.

Latest articles

After an FDA recall, patients need a plan for the next dose

Danielle Lightsey, RPh

November 8, 2026Nov 8, 2026

A medication recall can answer an important question about a product while leaving the patient's next question unresolved: What should I do about my next dose? That gap matters. A headline may name a medicine without identifying the particular package…

A medication recall can answer an important question about a product while leaving the patient’s next question unresolved: What should I do about my next dose?

That gap matters. A headline may name a medicine without identifying the particular package in a person’s home. A notice may explain a manufacturing problem without explaining how an individual will obtain a replacement. Information about a defective product and advice about continuing treatment serve …

How contract research organizations took over drug testing

Martha Rosenberg

November 5, 2026Nov 5, 2026

It's no secret that drug research and development is commercialized. "Technology transfer" and for-profit partnerships have turned some medical centers, universities, and National Institutes of Health research itself into for-profit pipelines for the drug industry. In 2007, Northwestern University, for…

It’s no secret that drug research and development is commercialized. “Technology transfer” and for-profit partnerships have turned some medical centers, universities, and National Institutes of Health research itself into for-profit pipelines for the drug industry.

In 2007, Northwestern University, for example, made $700 million by selling part of its worldwide royalty interest in the anti-seizure medicine Lyrica, which its chemists developed. Pfizer, which sold the drug, paid massive commercial …

Weight-loss drug side effects: Who’s checking your labs?

Youmna DiStefano, MD

November 3, 2026Nov 3, 20262

Here's a scene I suspect is playing out in a lot of exam rooms. A patient you haven't seen in eight months comes in for something unrelated. She's down 45 pounds. You ask how she's paying for her semaglutide now…

Here’s a scene I suspect is playing out in a lot of exam rooms. A patient you haven’t seen in eight months comes in for something unrelated. She’s down 45 pounds. You ask how she’s paying for her semaglutide now that her insurance dropped it. She smiles: “Oh, I get it online.” Then you ask when she last had blood work. Silence. That silence is the problem.

According to the Massachusetts …

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Tirzepatide after bariatric surgery: what nobody asked me

Patience C. Ennis

November 2, 2026Nov 2, 2026

I have been a nurse for thirty-two years and have given hundreds of injections. In late September 2025, my GP, my primary care doctor here in Australia, sent me an electronic prescription for tirzepatide. I collected it from the pharmacy and gave myself the first injection. I did not read the leaflet. I knew how to give an injection, so I gave it.

Two days later, my tongue was sticking to …

The GLP-1 shortage ended. The adherence problem did not.

Danielle Lightsey, RPh

October 29, 2026Oct 29, 2026

For several years, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications seemed to dominate conversations in community pharmacy. Patients called asking whether specific products were available, prescriptions were transferred between pharmacies, and pharmacy staff spent considerable time checking inventories and monitoring shortages. It was…

GLP-1 receptor agonists, including semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) and …

The exercise pill is back, and history urges caution

Francisco M. Torres, MD

October 22, 2026Oct 22, 20264

I was once the proud owner of a gadget from the early 2000s. A belt you wrapped around your midsection, switched on, and supposedly watched the vibrations melt the fat away. Predictably, it did not work. In fact, it never could have. Still, at the time I wanted it to work so much that, for a moment, I set aside everything I knew as a physician about how muscle and …

Testosterone for women belongs in the female range

Michael Duben, MD

October 20, 2026Oct 20, 20266

I am a board-certified endocrinologist with over twenty years of clinical experience and training in functional medicine. I trained when hormone replacement was gospel, and I have practiced through every swing of the pendulum since. So here is the thesis…

So here is the thesis first, because it is short. A woman’s testosterone belongs in the female range. For most women, not even at the top of it. For no woman, ever, in the male range.

Small …

Patients ask for antibiotics because they are afraid

Lin Kai

October 19, 2026Oct 19, 20263

An old man at my pharmacy window digs into his coat and hands me a piece of paper. It is soft at the folds, the way paper gets when it has been carried around for a while. He smooths it…

An old man at my pharmacy window digs into his coat and hands me a piece of paper. It is soft at the folds, the way paper gets when it has been carried around for a while. He smooths it flat on the counter.

“Do you have this?” he asks.

It isn’t a prescription. There is one word written on it. Amoxicillin.

He doesn’t say what for. He doesn’t mention a cold, or …

Are 12-step programs maligned because they sell nothing?

Martha Rosenberg

October 13, 2026Oct 13, 2026

Twelve Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Cocaine Anonymous are free, self-supporting, and do not advertise. That's why many do not know about them and their success rate. Instituted in the 1930s, such programs promote no drugs and…

Twelve Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Cocaine Anonymous are free, self-supporting, and do not advertise. That’s why many do not know about them and their success rate. Instituted in the 1930s, such programs promote no drugs and use no psychiatric or psychology experts, relying instead on peer-to-peer healing and often meeting in church basements.

In the last decade, drugmakers and insurance companies, distressed by all that non-prescription health …

Does nicotine cause cancer? What clinicians should say

Giorgi Mzhavanadze

October 13, 2026Oct 13, 2026

A patient considering a nicotine patch asks, "Doesn't nicotine cause lung cancer?" A reassuring answer should not minimize nicotine's risks. It should explain why a nicotine patch and a cigarette are not medically equivalent. Our survey in Ukraine suggests that…

A patient considering a nicotine patch asks, “Doesn’t nicotine cause lung cancer?” A reassuring answer should not minimize nicotine’s risks. It should explain why a nicotine patch and a cigarette are not medically equivalent.

Our survey in Ukraine suggests that this distinction warrants attention. Healthy Initiatives collected 1,538 responses to a questionnaire targeting health care professionals between October 2025 and September 2026. Asked to identify the most harmful components of smoking, …

Hunger after stopping tirzepatide can feel like burning

Patience C. Ennis

October 5, 2026Oct 5, 2026

When my hunger returned, it felt as though my stomach was burning from the inside out. It was acute, painful, and very physical. I pushed everything else aside and concentrated on getting rid of it. There was no negotiating with…

When my hunger returned, it felt as though my stomach was burning from the inside out.

It was acute, painful, and very physical. I pushed everything else aside and concentrated on getting rid of it. There was no negotiating with hunger that intense. My attention narrowed to what I could eat to make it stop.

I am a registered nurse with more than thirty years of clinical experience. I have had bariatric …

Does CVS controlled substance policy put patients at risk?

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

October 2, 2026Oct 2, 20263

Recently, a close friend called me in a panic. He was running dangerously low on lorazepam and asked if I could prescribe a small, bridging quantity over the weekend until his regular refill was due in a few days. As a physician, I wanted to help, but I first advised him to do what any reasonable patient would: call his pharmacy, CVS, explain the situation, and ask for a sliver …

What did the tirzepatide study actually test?

Jeffrey Laman, MD

September 28, 2026Sep 28, 2026

If you take Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, or Zepbound, or you are simply trying to make sense of GLP-1s (glucagon-like peptide-1) and GIPs (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide), you may have seen a recent Medscape article asking whether GIP really adds any benefit in type 2 diabetes. It is a fair scientific question. The problem is that the headline makes the answer sound much clearer than it is.

The study behind the article, …

The conflict of interest that discloses as nothing

Martha Rosenberg

September 23, 2026Sep 23, 2026

With 66 percent of U.S. adults, some 131 million people, now taking prescription drugs, and with Medicare drug spending running into the hundreds of billions, it is worth asking how the pharmaceutical industry came to occupy so central a place…

The FDA announced this month that it is hiring more than 2,000 employees, rebuilding after reductions …

Why cannabis use disorder and withdrawal go unnoticed

Ginger Constantine, MD

September 20, 2026Sep 20, 2026

Cannabis use disorder (CUD) and cannabis withdrawal syndrome (CWS) have been recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) for more than a decade. Researchers have documented symptoms of anxiety, irritability, insomnia, depression, decreased appetite, intense cravings, physical symptoms, and more. Despite years of published evidence, cannabis use disorder remains one of the most underrecognized and under-resourced substance use disorders in health care. The latest findings from …

How fentanyl misinformation turns suspicion into fact

Lynn R. Webster, MD

September 16, 2026Sep 16, 2026

Numbers do not have to be fabricated to mislead. They can be technically accurate and still create a false story when "detected" becomes "caused," "involved" becomes "alone," and a preliminary suspicion becomes a headline. This dynamic played out following a…

Numbers do not have to be fabricated to mislead. They can be technically accurate and still create a false story when “detected” becomes “caused,” “involved” becomes “alone,” and a preliminary suspicion becomes a headline.

This dynamic played out following a May 2026 emergency in Mountainair, New Mexico. Three people died in a home where investigators found fentanyl, para-fluorofentanyl, and methamphetamine, while eighteen first responders later reported symptoms such as nausea, …

The nociplastic pain question new pain therapies avoid

Amir Friedman, MD

September 15, 2026Sep 15, 2026

Systematic review data puts the prevalence of central sensitization features among knee osteoarthritis patients at approximately 36 percent by validated instrument. More than one in three patients carrying an orthopedic diagnosis you trust, presenting with pain that structural intervention may…

In my last piece, I argued that glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) pharmacology and neurotechnology …

mRNA hype moves faster than the evidence behind it

Harry Oken, MD

September 12, 2026Sep 12, 2026

mRNA technology may be both a remarkable scientific tool and a very effective marketing machine. Those are not mutually exclusive. The challenge is distinguishing a promising platform, a useful treatment, and a product promoted beyond what the evidence can support.…

In early 2020, COVID-19 was frightening. We did not know how readily the original strain would spread or how much illness and death it would cause. We soon learned that risk …

Side effects of osteoporosis drugs the trials never proved

Michael Duben, MD

September 10, 2026Sep 10, 2026

I have spent nearly twenty-five years treating osteoporosis. The drugs have gone from oral and intravenous bisphosphonates to several classes with better efficacy and, mostly, better tolerability. Their reputation has gotten worse. Some of that is a jaundiced view of the pharmaceutical industry, some the internet doing what the internet does. But a meaningful share comes from the government. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prints warnings its own trial …

Is personalized antithrombotic therapy ready for practice?

Anahita Dua, MD, MBA

September 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects millions of Americans and remains a leading cause of disability, repeat hospitalizations, and limb loss. Advances in endovascular devices, surgical techniques, and medical therapies have dramatically improved our ability to restore blood flow to the…

Following lower extremity revascularization, most patients are prescribed blood thinners to help prevent clot …

Drugs and prescribing

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