Pharmacy Week in Review: CDC Launches Anti-Smoking Campaign, Muscle Strength Tied to Lower Diabetes Risk

This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings, and more. Our Week in Review is a can't miss for the busy pharmacy professional.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Pharmacy Times News Network. I’m Nicole Grassano your host for our Pharmacy Week in Review.

The CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign has new powerful messages to encourage individuals to quit smoking, Pharmacy Times reported. Advertisements began April 1, 2019, as part of a 27-week campaign on cable and national television, in magazines, and online. This is the 8th year of the campaign, and the CDC estimates that from 2012 to 2015, the ads helped more than half a million people quit smoking permanently. Pharmacists can play an important role in educating teens about the dangers of smoking by going to high schools and public health fairs. Additionally, pharmacists can provide smoking cessation counseling at their pharmacies.

FDA officials have issued warning letters to 2 companies, EZ Fumes and Undisputed Worldwide, for labeling nicotine-containing e-liquids that may be mistaken for prescription cough syrups, Contemporary Clinic reported. The products include the Double Cup Liquids Pineapple Phantom E-Juice Syrup and Double Cups Liquid Spritech Lemon Lime E-Juice Syrup, both of which have advertising and/or labels that imitate prescription cough syrup products. Confusion about the products could result in someone ingesting toxic amounts of liquid nicotine. Likewise, nicotine exposures of these sorts are extremely problematic and could be fatal for children. Child poisonings resulting from the ingestion of liquid nicotine have recently increased substantially, according to an FDA brief.

A recent study found that maintaining moderate muscle strength may lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, Specialty Pharmacy Times reported. The study researchers asked 4681 individuals without diabetes to do bench and leg presses to measure muscle strength and perform treadmill tests to assess their cardiorespiratory fitness. The study found that individuals with moderate muscle strength were 32% less likely to develop diabetes than those who scored lowest on moderate muscle strength at the start of the study period. Furthermore, moderate muscle strength was associated with a lower risk of diabetes, even after researchers accounted for a person’s aerobic fitness levels, as well as risk factors such as drinking, family history, high blood pressure, obesity, and smoking.

Pharmacists may get more questions about Rexulti, if patients have seen a recent commercial for the prescription medication. In the spot, called “Something Had to Change,” the narrator describes how depression can make patients feel as though they are hiding behind masks. According to the commercial, when added to an antidepressant, Rexulti has been shown to reduce symptoms of bipolar disorder, depression, and insomnia.

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Thanks for watching our Pharmacy Week in Review. I’m Nicole Grassano at the Pharmacy Times News Network.