Medicine

My plan for tonight's blog does not seem to be materializing. I could use some of my ideas that I have for later in the week, or expand one of the Odds and Ends I have put aside, but I am pretty stubborn that way- and don't want to do that.

So I will explain where I was going to go with today's post first, then I will mention the article I was going to blog about before I had that "brilliant" idea that didn't pan out.. And THEN I will just call it a day.

I came across a term teaching a class last night and the meaning escaped me - which bothered me. The word was anxiolytic. It got me thinking about analgesics, antibiotics, anti inflammatories, diuretics,psychotropics, anesthetics, antiemetics etc . I know analgesics reduce pain but I couldn't for the life of me recall what an anxiolytic did. It is an anti anxiety medication or chemical - duh, but we always call them that -anti anxiety drugs- not anxiolytics. I was hoping to find a list of drugs by their scientific names and then to describe them all, but that list doesn't really exist. Surely there is a fancy name for a fever reducing drug, but I couldn't find it. Just to be thorough, since I did mention a few- I will explain them. The first is a pain reliever, the second fights bacterial infections, the next, inflammation, diuretics are fluid pills, psychotropics are drugs that can affect ones mood, anesthetics reduce consciousness and antiemetics are anti vomit medications.

So that's all I have for that thought.

Yesterday I was intrigued by a brief story regarding Medco which is a pharmacy benefits management company. In other words, a health insurance company might use Medco to review and determine what medications are on the formulary and what copayments apply to them. Medco was the company that first reported a drug interaction between a proton pump inhibitor and plavix. The company CEO has stated that they are going to spend more resources - staff and money - on independent research in the coming year. I know a lot of people get upset about benefits managers telling us which drugs we should take, especially because all those commercials we see make the newest drugs appear to be the best, but I for one am GRATEFUL for comparative research, and if it saves money that is all the much better because the country's insurance premiums seem to rise in unison.