Focus on Pharma:Xanax Very Commonly Prescribed

Xanax was reportedly found in the newly-departed vocalist Whitney Houston's possession.Alprazolam,the generic name for Pfizer's Xanax,has become one of the top ten most-prescribed psychiatric medications.
Although the regular form of Xanax is now off-patent and inexpensive as a generic prescription,Pfizer still has a patent for Xanax XR,the extended release form,which is less addictive.Xanax XR is four to five times more expensive than the regular form.Carefully managed,treatment with Xanax is widely successful and only 1% of patients abuse the drug.
Xanax is a fast-acting pill that takes effect within an hour or two.It is indicated for Panic disorder and Generalized anxiety disorder,or GAD,as well as Social anxiety disorder,and is also prescribed to relieve nausea during chemotherapy.It is related to Valium and is an anxiolytic of the benzodiazepine class of psychotropic drugs.
As well as calming anxiety,Xanax also has sedative properties.It is the latter effect that makes it so dangerous in combination with alcohol,in itself a sedative.Together,the two substances can easily interfere with the breathing mechanism,resulting in death.
According to Pfizer,Xanax causes a central nervous system depressant activity varying from mild impairment all the way to hypnosis.Alcohol should generally not be used during treatment.
Xanax has been clinically shown to be effective for up to four weeks.After taking the drug for a few weeks,the body develops tolerance for its sedative effect.It is there that the relatively small number of patients with addictive tendencies may get into trouble with it as they need to take more and more pills to get that effect.
Withdrawal symptoms may occur if treatment with Xanax is halted abruptly.
Pfizer(PFE)

Commentary:Overwrought Weather Warnings Blanket Region

There seem to be more alerts and warnings of every sort now than in the past.One can hardly get through a day without being sternly advised about some risk or other.
Thursday morning in the Washington,D.C. area was a case in point.Every five minutes,radio and television broadcasts were interrupted with tornado warnings,many of them redundant.Thunderstorms were under minute scrutiny for signs of rotation,and the least bit of it set off a hyperactive alert apparatus.By noon,you could have been excused for being a jangle of nerves.
Repeated alert sirens and loud taped warnings over a public address system in an outlying town gave a distinct impression of impending doom.In fact,not one tornado materialized there.If you had heeded the advice given,you would have sat in a windowless corner from 4:30 am to noon.
Try that on for cardiovascular or mental health.
The rotation detected in the storms was strictly in the upper levels.It was a potential for materializing,not an actual event.As well,one whole big county was lumped together,when the suspect rotation was confined to only portions of it.A high level of anxiety was produced in a region where killer tornadoes are almost never encountered,if ever encountered at all.Thankfully,the region carried on Thursday and the work of the nation proceeded.
Ironically,in areas typically hardest hit by severe storms,in the deep South and Midwest,they were perhaps not warned vigorously enough today.Hundreds died and more than a thousand were injured by tornadoes and straight line winds.