BLOG
Refusing Evening Advair – Case Scenario
A 54-year-old female with a history of moderate persistent asthma presented to the hospital with worsening shortness of breath, wheezing, and nighttime cough. Over the previous week, she had been...
Weight Loss Medications – Practice Pearls
Weight loss medications can differ substantially in efficacy, adverse effect profiles, and monitoring considerations, making patient-specific counseling essential. In this blog post, I share common...
NSAIDs and GI Bleeds – 3 High Risk Case Scenarios I’ve Seen in Practice
NSAIDs are a notorious cause of GI bleeds. This is something that I am significantly concerned about as a geriatric consultant pharmacist. In this blog post, I share 3 examples of NSAIDs causing GI...
Paroxetine Clinical Pearls
When you are studying for your exams, be sure to take a good, hard look at paroxetine. While it can be effective for anxiety disorders, panic disorder, depression, and PTSD, its pharmacokinetic and...
Hyponatremia – Should I Worry About a Sodium of 132 mEq/L?
A patient I was following had a sodium level of 132 mEq/L and a student asked me how much we should worry about this? It is a bit of a deep question, but in general, a slightly low sodium level of...
Amitriptyline Versus Nortriptyline – What’s The Difference?
If you follow geriatrics or are board-certified, you probably know that nortriptyline is generally preferred over amitriptyline in this patient population. It's kind of weird to think there is such...
My Top 5 SSRI Drug Interactions
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are among the most frequently prescribed medication classes in clinical practice. While they are generally considered safe and effective, clinicians...
Antidepressants in Seasonal Affective Disorder – Which One To Choose?
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) presents a unique opportunity in psychiatric prescribing because, unlike many other mood disorders, the timing of symptoms is often predictable. Patients typically...
If I Had 60 Seconds to Review a Med List, Here’s What I Would Do…
If I had 60 seconds to review a med list, I wouldn’t try to analyze every detail. That’s the biggest mistake clinicians make when time is limited. Instead, I rely on pattern recognition—quickly...
Why “Stable” Leads to Polypharmacy – 3 Case Examples
I've been collecting examples of situations where a patient is "stable", and a provider doesn't want to change medications. Stable is good, right? It is, but it can also lead to providers not...
Study Materials For Pharmacists
