Pharmaguy's News & Views PicksA more or less daily collection of links to pharmaceutical industry news and opinions curated by Pharmaguy™, a highly regarded industry pundit.
[Contents: Adderall Rx for Good Grades, YouTube Cancer Show, Doc Texts Teens, Adderall Non-Medical Use Graphic]
Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School
NYT
When Dr. Michael Anderson hears about his low-income patients struggling in elementary school, he usually gives them a taste of some powerful medicine: Adderall.
Multimedia
The pills boost focus and impulse control in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Although A.D.H.D is the diagnosis Dr. Anderson makes, he calls the disorder “made up” and “an excuse” to prescribe the pills to treat what he considers the children’s true ill — poor academic performance in inadequate schools.
“I don’t have a whole lot of choice,” said Dr. Anderson, a pediatrician for many poor families in Cherokee County, north of Atlanta. “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.”
YouTube
Novartis is using YouTube to broadcast a new talk show about advanced breast cancer as part of its ongoing disease awareness efforts in the area.
Episode 1 of the Each Voice Counts talk show series, "The Women: Part 1" features four women sharing their stories of life with advanced breast cancer. Each Voice counts is part of the Count Us, Know Us, Join Us program, the mission of which is to recognize those living with advanced breast cancer, their caregivers, supporters, friends, and family members. We invite you to join us in supporting this community to reinforce that they do count.
NYT Well
Dr. Burgert, a pediatrician in Kansas City, Mo., is making house calls. She is among a small but growing number of practitioners using social media to engage adolescents. Her patients read her blog and follow her on Twitter and Facebook. She even follows a few of the teenagers’ blogs, commenting occasionally.
During checkups, Dr. Burgert no longer gives teenagers brochures with advice on healthy living — which usually led to glazed expressions and teeming wastebaskets. Instead, a whiteboard hangs in her exam room, with hyperlinks and QR codes to sites with teenager-friendly material on sexuality, alcohol and drugs. The teenagers can photograph the board with their phones, storing the information to peruse in private.
Graphic: Nonmedical Use of Adderall, by College Enrollment Status
Pharmaguy on Pinterest
Full-time college students aged 18 to 22 were twice as likely as their counterparts who were not full-time college students to have used Adderall nonmedically in the past year (6.4 vs. 3.0 percent). This pattern was found for both males and females and for persons aged 18 to 20 as well as for those 21 or 22 years old.
A more or less daily collection of links to pharmaceutical industry news and opinions curated by Pharmaguy™, a highly regarded industry pundit.
9th October 2012, 11:30 AM
Adderall Rx for Good Grades, YouTube Cancer Show, Doc Texts Teens
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