The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "prescribed medication" ...
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C-HIT: Pharma Perks
The Affordable Care Act requires pharmaceutical companies to publicly report all payments to physicians by September 2013. Some drug companies have already compiled, but few consumers know that the information is available or how to access it. What this story did is disclose for the first time for CT consumers: 1) how many doctors in Connecticut are high-prescribers of certain psychotropic and pain medications, (108) 2) the cost of written prescriptions (hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases) 3) how many of these doctors received payments from drug companies (at least 43) 4) and the amounts that the doctors received from the drug companies ($30,000 - $99,000) It also reported that only 3 doctors on the high-prescribing drug list have been disciplined by the state Medical Examining Board.
Tags: Affordable Care Act; pharmacy; physicians; prescriptions; drugs; Medical Examining Board
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Failure to Inform
“Doctors at dialysis clinics have failed to inform thousands of patients about kidney transplantation, an oversight that could shorten their lives and cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year”. Many patients start dialysis without hearing the benefits of a kidney transplant. The benefits being about 10 years put on your life and saving the federal Medicare program “thousands of dollars a patient”. This series uncovered money plays a large role when prescribing patients on dialysis rather than getting a transplant.
Tags: medicine; health care; medical; costs; kidney disease; taxpayers; debilitating; insurance; treatments
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Juiced in the Valley
"Juiced in the Valley is a series of reports exposing the illegal prescribing of anabolic steroids by a group of doctors at Revolution Medical Centers in Phoenix, Arizona."
Tags: steroid use; prescription fraud; clinics; overdose; suicide; performance-enhancing drugs
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Beaten Down: Fear and Violence in Canada's Nursing Homes; Off Limits
"Beaten Down" takes a look at how seniors are being poorly treated in nursing homes and that violence had increased significantly from 2003 to 2006. There were found to be increases in all types of violence: resident to resident, staff to resident, and resident to staff. In the "Off-Limits" series, prescription medication sales data for a 24-month period were examined after Health Canada warned doctors about prescribing medication that carried an increased risk of heart attack.
Tags: Long Term Care Medical Directors Association of Canada; Ontario; British Columbia; senior citizen; elderly; abuse; mistreatment; rest home;
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Kids, Antidepressants, and Money
This series uncovered how Texas was medicating foster children with powerful and sometimes dangerous psychotropic drugs. In many cases, these drugs were not necessary and over-prescribed. The children were being systematically medicated due to the mandated use of a program that was designed by "expert consultants" who were also paid consultants for the pharmaceutical industry.
Tags: psychotropic drugs; foster children; Texas Medical Director; antidepressants; Paxil; Texas Child Welfare System; Federal Medicaid Program
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Drug Danger Cover-up? Evidence of Suppressed Information
In a six month investigation of the antidepressant manufacturers, PrimeTime Live uncovered a trail of internal documentation revealing efforts to suppress information regarding serious adverse health risks from consumers and the doctors who prescribe these powerful psychoactive medications. Patients, and parents of juvenile patients, suspected that the drug companies were not coming clean about the negative effects of antidepressants.
Tags: antidepressants; psychoactive medication; suicidal behavior in children; Glaxo SmithKline; Paxil; Vioxx; Wyeth; Effexor; Pfizer; Zoloft
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Tough To Take
More than a hundred million prescriptions are written out each year for off-label drugs. Doctors prescribe drugs to make the side-effects kick in and take effect. In many cases, this could be dangerous. Reporters from this news station using FOIA, presented the case to the FDA. FDA has no classification such as off-label but lists the reactions to certain drugs. This story went on air giving a list of precautions people could take while on prescription medication.
Tags: prescription medication; medicines; pharmaceutical medication; FDA; FOIA; side effects of medication; off-label medication; off-label prescription
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A Suicide Side Effect?: What Parents Aren't Being Told About Their Kids' Antidepressants, Drug Report Barred by FDA: Scientist Link Antidepressants to Suicide in Kids, Alert on Antidepressants for Kids, Lawmakers Open Probe of FDA, FDA Was Urged to Limit Kids' Antidepressants
This series by the San Francisco Chronicle explores the increasing trend of children being prescribed antidepressants, as well as the suicidal acts which may result from the medication. Waters looks into how the FDA has failed these children by withholding reviews of antidepressant safety from the public and failing to regulate the industry.
Tags: Food and Drug Administration; antidepressants; suicide
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Pharmaceutical Roulette
Reporters from the Washington Post reveal that there are various loopholes in the supposedly tightly regulated system for distributing prescription drugs. Their findings reveal that the main avenues to acquire prescription drugs are internet sites, certain doctors and small illegal wholesalers. They also find loopholes in the laws and regulations.
Tags: Prescription drugs; prescribed medication; drug addiction; illegal drugs; online selling of prescription drugs; rogue internet sites
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Use of Samples in Drug Industry Raises Concern
This article talks about how pharmaceutical companies are raising the costs of prescription drugs, but at the same also giving away more free samples in an attempt to entice doctors to prescribe their medication.
Tags: prescription drugs; medication; drug industry; free samples; doctors; pharmacy; pharmaceuticals; drugs; medicine; health care; money; costs