A Hard Pill to Swallow: Ethical Problems of Digital Medication

A Hard Pill to Swallow: Prescribing Stimulants Within the Prison Setting.

In the film The Matrix, the character Neo is offered a choice between a red pill and a blue pill. Choosing the blue pill would allow him to continue his existence in the artificial reality of the Matrix, and therefore, he would continue living the blissful ignorance of illusion. The red pill would mandate a return to the real world and the painful truth of reality. It is apparent that in the mo...

Future bronchodilator therapy: a bitter pill to swallow?

Maintenance of airway tone, prevention of airway obstruction, and acute relief from bronchospasm are key targets of asthma therapy. This role is currently performed by β-agonists. However, chronic use of β-agonists to treat asthma is associated with desensitization of β-agonist signaling and a resultant loss of bronchodilator effect, worsening of airway hyperreactivity, and increased incidence ...

A hard pill to swallow: a qualitative study of women's experiences of adjuvant endocrine therapy for breast cancer

OBJECTIVE To explore women's experiences of taking adjuvant endocrine therapy as a treatment for breast cancer and how their beliefs about the purpose of the medication, side effects experienced and interactions with health professionals might influence adherence. DESIGN Qualitative study using semistructured, one-to-one interviews. SETTING 2 hospitals from a single health board in Scotland...

Switching to the Euro: still hard to swallow.

Long-term adherence to antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings: a bitter pill to swallow.

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy is an important predictor of long-term treatment success. Adherence can be differentiated between early adherence challenges, that are about integrating pill-taking into daily life, and long-term adherence, where patients struggle to maintain clinical connections and interrupt clinical care and medication use. In resource-limited settings, treatment interrupt...