PILL-POPPING POEMS (selected pharmaceuticals)

CURRENT CONTENTS:

Antimalarial

Fentanyl addiction

Glucocorticosteroids

Hypoglycemics, oral

Naloxone

Simethicone

Drug development (3 stanzas, a 'brief saga')

Author's Note: Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), a drug developed to combat the infectious disease malaria, was found by happenstance to be of value in suppressing certain manifestations of SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus), an inflammatory disease, and retains a niche use for that secondary purpose.

  Recently, the drug has been advocated, without convincing evidence, to treat the severe lung involvement of COVID-19 pneumonia.

Authors' Note: 

dex: jargony abbreviation for dexamethasone, a potent glucocorticosteroid medication (med), that is used intravenously in intensive care units (ICUs) and other medical settings

septic shock: a life-threatening complication of deep or widespread infection in which blood pressure drops to a dangerous level

  During the recent pandemic (COVID-19), the use of dexamethasone to specifically counter the complications of advanced COVID-19 infection received a lot of attention in the media. 

Authors' Note: This poem satirizes the 'direct-to-consumer' ads by Big Pharma that Americans are subjected to alll day while watching television. Such public announcements are mandated by only a handful of regulatory national agencies in the entire world, one being the U.S.

Orgactis is an apocryphal (i.e. 'fake'), pharmaceutical product, a medication taken by mouth that is marketed for longterm use in adult onset ('type 2') diabetes. That disorder is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. 'Jack' is the patient portrayed as possibly benefitting from the drug in the first verse.

Many classes of drugs have recently become available to control type-2 diabetes; these have undergone, particularly recently, rigorous monitoring during the stage of early drug approval. Earlier, one of the first groups of anti-diabetic pills, the sulfonylureas, (e.g. chlorpropamide and tolbutamide), discovered in 1942, became widely used worldwide. However in 2013, a monitoring group raised serious concerns that these particular chemical compounds were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death. The American FDA (Food and Drug Administration) now requires that anti-diabetic sulfonylureas carry a warning label to that effect.

 NALOXONE

There's an antidote med I'm advising

For opiate users demising

By OD or intention.

Inject stat: death's prevention.

Naloxone's a drug worth apprising.

Giorgio Coniglio. 

Authors' Note: The euphemistic initialism OD, for drug overdose, in the parlance of emergency health providers, most often refers to an unintentional drug overdose of narcotic street drugs (e.g. heroin), by an unscheduled user. In a somewhat different context, it may refer to a suicide attempt with a variety of oral medications, including oral opioids, e.g. fentanyl. Naloxone is an antidote molecule, directed at the brain's opioid receptors that can promptly reverse the intense depression of respiratory centres caused by this specific class of drugs. Kits are available for use of this life-saving antidote by injection, and also, more recently, as a nasal spray.

Authors' Note: Simethicone (simeticone), a silicon-based product, is the active ingredient in most current over-the-counter remedies to relieve abdominal distension and gaseous bloating. With coalescence of the offending small bubbles, the gas is dispersed by flatulence and belching.

(Note that the three stanzas of this "brief saga" can be found in more readily legible format on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"; click HERE.) 

Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 200 of these!) on medical/dental topics, updated to December 2024. 

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS:

To resume the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until December 2024. 

As of December 2024, there are 1800 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. Most of their key elements are also presented here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections, such as this one. The "Daily" format also has the advantage of including some song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.