Lengthy lists meant to protect against lawsuits, but can overwhelm doctors and patients
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comAverage drug label lists whopping 70 side effects
Seeded on Mon May 23, 2011 5:25 PM EDT (msnbc.com)
- msnbc.com sites & shows:
- TODAY
- Rock Center
- Nightly News
- Meet the Press
- Dateline
- Morning Joe
- Hardball
- Ed
- Maddow
- Last Word
- msnbc tv
Leave a Comment:
thats exactly right...hard to know what symptoms people experienced during testing are truly side effects
That's why nobody pays attention to the 4 page magazine ads, labels and fast talking media ads. Its just Big Pharma covering their butt in this lawsuit- crazy country.
I'd be FASCINATED to find the percentage & frequency of DEATH, HEART ATTACK, STROKE, WEIGHT GAIN, VIOLENCE, AGGRESSION, & SUICIDE
My guess--100% and ALL
#JUST BECAUSE ITS OFFERED-DOESN'T MEAN ITS HELP
That is why we call them "scare sheets". They keep the lawyers happy.
Yeah, it can be real overkill. I've had more than one patient refuse their meds after counseling on potential side effects. Sometimes it's no big deal and you just explain that OK, you might feel like crap for a couple more days than you might have but it's no big deal. But when you have to explain the potential consequences of more complicated issues and diseases it can take up time we just don't have- just one problem can leave you hopelessly buried for the entire day.
or your patient/customer.
Minimizing product warnings is more than "worth the time".
ITS A PROFESSIONAL ETHICAL OBLIGATION.
MINIMIZING product warnings would save lots of time. But since I'm an ethical professional I don't do that. I do however try to put them into perspective.
If a side effect is known you can watch for it when you take a drug. If you insist on taking new drugs that have just come on the market you have become a test subject for the pharmaceutical industry.
Uncommon adverse reactions to drugs come to light after millions of people start taking a new drug. Most new drugs are only copies or marginal improvements on existing drugs but with an expensive price.
is it really worth taking these drugs with all these "possible" side effects? why are these drugs available for use if the side effects are worse than the disease? I'd also like to know the criteria the FDA uses to pass these drugs. Obviously not a very strict list!
For several years now the FDA requires applicants to FUND AND PROVIDE THEIR OWN APPROVAL STUDIES.
#THE FOX IS RAIDING THE HENHOUSE
MMJ has none of these side effects.
I noticed that the article mentions antidepressants, and drugs that treat Parkinson's disease...aren't ALL of those drugs PSYCHIATRIC? That can't be a coincidence, and maybe all these articles coming out lately....
Like the mother who is being railroaded by the state to medicate her child, even when the child is doing fine.
And now, the article that states antidepressants have over 70 side effects. Not to mention that a majority of these meds do more harm than good, and ALL have miserable side effects.
All these kids that are suddenly ADD/ADHD and have been put on drugs for it. The few kids I know on these drugs had TEACHERS complaining, and didn't misbehave at home...so that tells me that the "symptoms" were really just symptoms of boredom, or they just didn't like school...either way, I noticed the teachers get a lot happier once they were medicated.
....maybe Americans will finally wake up. Maybe they'll start opening their eyes, and seeing today's modern mental health industry for what it's become: Big Pharma manufacturing MORE dangerous drugs, and the psychiatrists who write prescriptions for these drugs and then reap the benefits($$$$).
The only mental health professional I'd trust nowadays is a therapist, wher all you really do is TALK...that way there's no reason to worry about labels and pills.
Trying to assess a drug's effect on N=1,000,000 patients with a N=10 or N=100 or a N=1000 study will always run into sampling issues for the reasons mentioned beforehand.
One could roll a dice six times, and produce a different ratio of outcomes. Someone else could repeat the experiment and get different results. One could pronounce the results rigged, or multiple variables are behind the differing results, especially when one tries to model the effects of millions of dice rolls using as few rolls as possible to save money, or just because not enough trial subjects are available.
It's impossible to know all the SE of every medication. Sometimes even Big Pharma doesn't know them. I visit a cancer survivors network (having lost 2 people close to me to cancer in the last 2 yrs) It's filled with men and women who report SE to their drs./nurses and are told ,"That's not because of the chemo, that's not because of the steroids, the nausea drugs , I've never heard of that and so on and so on." All you can do is read and educate yourself and do your own research before you pop those pills... Children and the elderly are esp. vulnerable. Children because they haev no choice, the elderly because they don't always see or hear well, aren't often computer literate, and tend to take drs. word as gospel.
If they are listing those side effects from a drug to protect them from suits,then they should already be aware of the dangers to the public!
Good point. Kind of makes you wonder why nothing is being done to stop this and reform the current mental health system.....we need to find something other than pills for everything.
Nowadays, if you're kid is a little fidgety, then he MUST have ADD/ADHD. It coudn't possibly be that his class is uninteresting, and unengaging. It couldn't possibly be that he needs to get outside and burn off some energy...
And then there are the teachers who overstep their bounds, and report any kid who is slightly different...like the shy quiet ones, or the emos/goths to the school counselors/therapists...because they might be depressed or dangerous. I've actually read about this online, and so many young people are posting things like "Help, my teacher thinks I'm depressed, but I'm not" or, "My teacher treats me different because I'm quiet"....and so many of these kids who post these kinds of things are either being dragged to therapy, or to doctors for medication.
We need to let go of this mindset that "everyone needs therapy"....I mean, sure, everyone has issues, but a majority of the issues are not so serious that they need to be diagnosed and "treated".
Isis, if we fail to report *any* possible symptom of depression and something happens, then we get into a lot of legal trouble. We understand that certain kids act in certain ways, that some kids are naturally quiet while others are brash, but we have to protect ourselves from lawsuits.
Well, I've seen "reporting" go so far as the kid being put into therapy for being slightly different, or worse on meds....why do you think I drilled it into the school therapist's head that she needed to leave me the hell alone and stop calling me into her office(it worked. too)?
I understand the legal part, but talk to the student DIRECTLY first, before you go running your mouth off to your superiors. Because you never know, some kids are just different, and in a good way.
It is the side effects they keep hidden is what worries me. Just don't take any drug until it has been on the market 7 years, then research it before you take it to see if you still want to take it. It takes about 7 years for the truth about the new drugs to come out.
This is my rule of thumb. When Gardisil (sp?) came out a friend who had suffered cervical cancer begged me to run out and get the shot right away, I told her I needed about 7 to 10 years before I would even consider it.
So look at the published placebo comparison data, and you will usually find that the PLACEBO will be reported as having most of the very same side effects, sometimes less and sometimes even more than the active drug being tested.
There is nothing whatsoever that will have data showing 'no side effects' in a genuine study. All one can do is look at the difference between the placebo's side effects and those of the active drug.
All that is part of how a study is done, and how the data is collected and the questions asked in a 'double-blind' clinical trial.
and even still, not all the side affects are listed on most medications. No meds for me, thanks, I developed enough problems with Depakote, my daughter was born with spinal bifida and I ended up with dystonia and rampant tooth decay. 7 thousand dollars later, my teeth are good for the most part. but will I ever get my daughter's health back, no... there are so many alternative therapies out there. It's come to a point where we just can't trust doctors and the pharmacuetical industry because all they care about is money, not your health. Time to take your health into your own hands and do your own research. Doctors and medication should really be a last resort.