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FDA Announces Clozapine REMS Program Eliminated
As of February 24, 2025, the FDA has eliminated the Clozapine Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program. See the FDA link for details. Below is the announcement. “Latest Update February 24, 2025 – Beginning today, FDA does not expect prescribers, pharmacies, and patients to participate in the risk evaluation and mitigation strategies (REMS) program for…
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Addiction Not the Same as Neuroadaptation
It’s common to read or hear people say they’re “addicted” to all sorts of things, like chocolate, but there’s a difference between addiction and adaptation. Adaptation can also be called “dependence” or the fancier “neuroadaptation.” This can foster a discussion about whether you can be addicted to antidepressants, which by extension, could mean it’s difficult…
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Are There Clear and Consistent Racial Differences in Immunity?
So, the short answer is “Probably not.” I did a little digging on this because I heard the recently confirmed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr (RFK Jr) cite studies which he says did indicate there are differences in humoral immunity between Caucasians and African Americans. Now remember, I’m a retired general hospital psychiatric consultant…
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Send The Asteroid; We Deserve It
About that news article regarding an asteroid colliding with earth—I couldn’t read it…hits too close to home (rim shot!). More seriously (but not much!), the background for this is that the asteroid 2024 YR4 has been identified by NASA and is tracking it now. News stories emphasize its large size of maybe up to a…
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Get Ready to Vaccinate Your Chickens!
I’ve heard about the recent contract a drug company (Zoetis) obtained to make chicken vaccine for the H5N1 bird flu virus which is hopping from birds to cows and even to humans. So far, I haven’t heard that the bird flu is transmitted between humans. As far as eating eggs, I’ve read that the chance…
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Rounding@Iowa Podcast: “Challenges in Transitioning Seriously Ill Patients from Pediatric to Adult Systems of Care”
I listened to the Rounding@Iowa podcast of February 11, 2025, “Challenges in Transitioning Seriously Ill Patients from Pediatric to Adult Systems of Care.” This was a very interesting presentation about the challenges of helping persons with life-limiting conditions (for example, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia and more) transition from pediatric to adult systems of…
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Rife vs Ripe: Which is Right?
I noticed a couple of things about one of the President’s many new Executive Orders, which was “ESTABLISHING THE PRESIDENT’S MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN COMMISSION,” or MAHA for short. It was posted on February 13, 2025. One thing it reminded me of is the tax filing season, which is upon us (everything reminds me of…
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FDA Has Yet to Decide on What to Do About the Clozapine REMS Program
I checked on what the FDA is doing about changing or closing down the Clozapine REMS program. It doesn’t look like they’ve taken any action yet. Recall there was a Clozapine REMS Advisory Committee meeting about this on November 19, 2024 that I posted about recently. The upshot was that the committee voted overwhelmingly (14…
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How About Artificial Intelligence for Helping Reduce Delirium in the ICU?
I got the Winter 2025 Hopkins Brain Wise newsletter today and there was a fascinating article, “Using AI to Reduce Delirium in the ICU: Pilot Study will explore AI headset can help reduce delirium and delay post-delirium cognitive decline.” The article has exciting news about what researchers are doing which will, hopefully, reduce the incidence…
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Artificial Intelligence in Managing Messages from Patients
I ran across another interesting article in the JAMA Network about Artificial Intelligence (AI) with respect to health care organization managing messages from patients to doctors and nurse. The shorthand for this in the article is “in-basket burden.” Health care workers respond to a large number of patients’ questions and it can lead to burnout.…
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