As a 60-year-old woman sat and did her crossword puzzle, the rows and columns began to rhythmically move up and down on the page. She described what she was seeing as “shimmering, like watching a ping-pong ball move back and forth.” Each episode lasted a few seconds and occurred as often as every 30 minutes throughout the day. History of … Read More
The Pharmacist’s Corner: Understanding Opioid Effectiveness and Adherence Using Pharmacogenetics
By Swan Lin, PharmD Candidate, and Valerie Fishbeck, PharmD A patient walks up to the pharmacy counter with two new prescriptions for the opioid oxycodone, also known as Oxycontin. One is for a long acting form of the medication while the other is for a short-acting form; prescribing both is common pain management strategy. The patient had previously been … Read More
Flawed studies informed recommendations against CYP2D6 testing for tamoxifen treatment, new study finds
A recent Mayo Clinic study has found that clinical recommendations discouraging the use of CYP2D6 genetic testing to advise tamoxifen treatment in women with breast cancer should be reconsidered because some of the studies the recommendations were based on had flawed methodology. The article, published in the January issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that some … Read More