AlterNet: 15 Dangerous Drugs Big Pharma Shoves Down Our Throats

[marmar]

In the pharmaceutical industry’s rush to get drugs to market, safety usually comes last. Long studies to truly assess a drug's risks just delay profits after all -- and if problems do emerge after medication hits the market, settlements are usually less than profits. Remember, Vioxx still made money.

The following drugs are so plagued with safety problems, it is a wonder they’re on the market at all. It's a testament to Big Pharma's greed and our poor regulatory processes that they are.

-- Lipitor and Crestor

Why is Lipitor the bestselling drug in the world? Because every adult with high LDL or fear of high LDL is on it. (And also 2.8 million children, says Consumer Reports.) No one is going to say statins don't prevent heart attack in high-risk patients (though diet and exercise have worked in high-risk groups too). But doctors will say statins are so over-prescribed that more patients get their side effects -- weakness, dizziness, pain and arthritis -- than heart attack prevention. Worse, they think it's old age!

"My older patients literally do without food so that they can buy these medicines that make them sicker, feel bad, and do nothing to improve life," says an ophthalmologist web poster from Tennessee. "There is no scientific basis for treating older folks with $300+/month meds that have serious side-effects and largely unknown multiple drug interactions." What kinds of side effects? All statins can cause muscle breakdown (called rhabdomyolysis) but combining them with antibiotics, protease inhibitors drugs and anti-fungals increases your risks. In fact, Crestor is so highly linked to rhabdomyolysis it is double dissed: Public Citizen calls it a Do Not Use and the FDA's David Graham named it one of the five most dangerous drugs before Congress.

-- Yaz and Yasmin

It sounded too good to be true and it was. Birth control pills that also cleared up acne, treated severe PMS (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder or PMDD) and avoided the water retention of traditional birth control pills. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/health/148907/15_dangerous_drugs_big_pharma_shoves_down_our_throats/

[ananda]

1. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

There's a designer drug for just about every "diagnosis" in the DSM which
is getting fatter and fatter. Not only that, but psychiatric patients now
take several drugs and not just one. And not only that, the whole mental
health industry is a complete scam.

[jberryhill]

2. In what way is the "whole mental health industry" a "complete scam"

You include all psychologists and psychiatrists in that?

[shireen]

4. total BS

those drugs save lives.

if you're going to make dumb statements like that, BACK IT UP WITH FACTS.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. Don't broad brush.

The "mental health industry" from shrinks to medication kept me from throwing myself out a window, thank you very much. I should note it was after meditation, vitamins, herbs, acupuncture, bioneurofeedback, healing, and kittens failed.

[Better Today]

7. The broad brush is accurate, imo. You may be one of the exceptions

to the broad brush, that doesn't mean the broad brush comments in regards to mental, social, and emotional medicating are incorrect.

Just my opinion based on some reading, some personal experience, and mostly watching others' experiences.

[shireen]

3. Why would Americans take an epilepsy seizure drug for pain?

BECAUSE IT FUCKING WORKS!!!
:mad:

Damn! That article pissed me off! Without Lyrica, i would be dealing with peripheral neuropathic pain like you would not believe. I'd rather be dead than endure pain like that. And no, there aren't alternative drugs to relieve my symptoms. Lyrica is it.

ALL drugs have side effects and problems. In making the decision to take it, you weigh the risks vs. symptom relief.

Some of us take those pills to live. Maybe one of the side-effects could kill me someday. But until then, i have a greatly improved quality of life. I'll take that any day over a life wracked in pain.

[Better Today]

6. Truth be told, NO ONE, not Drs nor Pharmas can "shove" anything

down our throats. Unfortunately most folks today seem to have been brainwashed into thinking that doctors are good people who only have our best health in mind, and therefore take whatever is suggested to be shoved down our throats. Even a small bit of personal responsibility (reading pharma reference books like the one I got from Consumer's Reports years ago, or that can be found in most libraries) would go a long way to having people realize that many meds are simply more dangerous than the problem they claim to address. It would also let them know right away when they are being asked to take meds that are off-label (I think that's the term for taking a med for something it's not approved for).

We need some mass PSA reminding everyone that their docs are not gods, that we are in charge of our bodies, and to put it bluntly, the entire medical community is only in the business of keeping you chronically medicated which forces you to chronically see the doctor. Cures are just not what the medical society does anymore, perhaps never did.

[LongTomH]

8. Have you cross-posted this to the Health forum?

Nft