Benzo overprescribing

Stroke survivors may be getting too many benzos, according to a new paper out of Harvard Med.

Giving them drugs like lorazepam to help deal with recovery anxiety is fine. The trouble, the paper suggests, is that…

More than half of the new prescriptions of benzodiazepines were written for a supply of 15 to 30 days, rather than the smaller number of pills for short-term, as-needed use.

That extra, oversupply “would be enough for patients to become long-term users or possibly addicted,” they wrote.

Telehealth rules update

Remember when it was leaked that the DEA was considering reinstating in-person requirements for getting controlleds via telehealth? That didn’t sit well with a lot of people. Most people, in fact, including HHS.

Quick refresher: Telemedicine rules were relaxed during the pandemic to ensure continuity of care, but everyone liked them so much the DEA extended that relaxation twice. The ‘temporary’ rules were set to expire at the end of this year, though.

The latest: A bipartisan group of senators has written to the Biden administration, “calling such restrictions ‘detrimental to patients and a barrier to accessing care’.”

Coincidentally, the very day the letter was sent, DEA submitted a proposal to extend the relaxed requirements for another year, probably grumbling under its breath while it did that.

^* If you want to go down a rabbit hole, note that the senators referred to President Biden as “The Honorable,” but it’s not clear that the title should be given to the president himself.

What, them worry?

The public — that great, teeming mass of rabble — is still a bit worried about Covid-19 and the flu, but not so much about RSV. That’s according to a survey out of Penn’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. It’s unfortunate, because RSV kills 6,000 adults and at least 100 young children die every year, and it’s preventable with a quick vaccine.

Still, most people aren’t concerned:

• Only 26% are worried about getting or having a family member get RSV in the next few months
• 33% are worried about Covid-19
• 37% are worried about the flu

Of note is that the worry about RSV has dropped since last year for no good reason — it’s not as if the disease has waned in any way. (Worry about Covid and the flu have remained steady, though.)

Compounding update

FDA: All compounders can still make tirzepatide

While it sits in the corner and thinks about what it did, the FDA has said that yes, all compounding pharmacies can create and dispense compounded tirzepatide. (Its statement the other day wasn’t clear whether smaller, 503A pharmacies were allowed to renew dispensing it. Now the agency clarified that.)

Novo is still on the attack

Meanwhile, although it’s still unable to supply Ozempic, Novo Nordisk has filed “18 law­suits against GLP-1 com­pounders in 44 days.” That’s despite the fact that compounding semaglutide is perfectly legal while it’s in shortage. (It’s not legal, though, to refer to a compounded product as “Ozempic” — that’s a trademark violation.)

Standing doesn’t deliver

If you stand a lot at work, you might be tempted to silently mock those people who buy standing desks just to get the benefits you enjoy. Well, you might want to keep your mockery silent. A new Aussie study finds that, contrary to anecdotal reports …

… over the long-term, standing more compared with sitting does not improve cardiovascular health (coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure), and could increase the risk of circulatory issues related to standing, such as varicose veins and deep vein thrombosis.

Not that sitting is any better — it’s still pretty awful for your body to be on your butt more than 10 hours a day —so getting up and getting physical is important. But a standing desk isn’t going to help.

The Long Read

The first ED treatment gel is available over the counter. Forbes’s Bruce “No Relation” Lee ponders “How New OTC Eroxon Gel May Affect Erectile Dysfunction And Sex”.

If it’s a gel, you figure that someone somewhere will smear it on all kinds of things in all kinds of amounts.