Top 200 drugs in the US - 2008

Jón T. Njarðarson's team at the University of Cornell has put together an interesting poster listing the top 200 pharmaceuticals used last year, ranked in order of sales dollars. Ostensibly there to "educate students about how chemistry positively impacts our lives" (debatable, I guess), it is a useful list because it gives the brand names, chemical structures, and general uses of these drugs we so commonly run in to in practice. A useful quick-reference (and an alarming amount of money spent).

Integrative mental health - an herbalist's ideas

Just a quick note for those interested in the outline for some general approaches / suggestions for the herbalist seeking to provide support in the management of mental health issues. This document includes suggestions on assessment process, goal-setting, general tonification approaches, and specific herbs for mental health symptom profiles.
My feeling is that disease labels are not helpful in approaching this aspect of health. Rather, I like to focus on symptoms - highs, lows, fluctuations - and the constitution in which they are presenting. Herbal suggestions are presented from this point of view.