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EricT · 02-07-2008, 01:33 PM

Monsta, got you. Yeah, they try to distract you from the side-effects with something going on in the commercial. I will say that for most of these drugs the side effects are unusual. At the same time, though, they sound so horrible as Kane pointed out. With the restless legs thing, for instance, most people don't have it continuously. My wife gets it too (this must be real damn common) but not so much that she needs a drug that has head explosion as a possible side effect, j/k.

Ross, you make very good points. BTW, you can vote "i'm not sure". I didn't make the post as an anti prescription drug thing at all, let me make that clear. If you look at the other thread me and hrdgain were talking about this stuff you will see that's not really where I am at at all. What you said about your Grandma, is a very valid point.

But part of it is WHERE the information is coming from. IMHO, information about drugs should come first from doctors and pharmacist, not people trying to sell drugs.

So as Triggey said: "Am I the only one that finds it odd that some people see a commercial for a prescription drug, then go to a medical professional to try and get that specific drug, instead of the professional prescribing what's best for them?"

But speaking from personal experience doctors these days routinely prescribe drugs they know very little about. People may find it hard to believe but it is very possible to talk you doctor into prescribing shit. Of course not all doctors but most of them are so overbooked and generally ignorant about the vast amount of complications it's ridiculous. And then you go to the big name pharmacy and they fail to even ask what drugs you are taking (it pays to always use the same pharmacy, btw).

I actually was put on this shit that gave me terrible headaches almost as soon as I started taking it. I read the little insert and headaches were the first and most common side effect listed. I called my doctor and told her and she goes "I'm not aware of it causing headaches. It is just a coincidense". I asked her if she had bothered to read about this "new" drug. Well as soon as I skipped the next dose...headaches gone. Needless to say I was pretty pissed at being prescribed a drug by a doctor who not only knew nothing about it, but would never even concede the side effect. This is just one story of many, lol.

It's all a very grey area and it's a failing in the whole field. Hrdgain makes a valid point as well. If you have herpes you know about it, etc. But not to belabor the restless legs example, do you realize how many people could get that and have no idea it was a common and real thing? And their first indication of that is from a drug commercial and most people with that condition have no real need for drugs which could definitely be worse than the acutally condition.

And what about the sleeping pills? The ones that are so "different" from all the rest. The ones that aren't addictive. But that the side-effects are hidden away in the scenery as Kane said. You are going to get people losing a couple nights of sleep now and again, and the next time they see their doctor claim insomnia so they can get that great new pill. We are a pill popping culture, as many of you have pointed out. So while hrdgain, is right, not all of these are necessarily as clear cut "problems" as they may seem.

Like Widdoes, said, helping people is secondary. The first responsibility is to the stockholders. That is not to say that having the right drug when the time comes isn't a wonderful thing. It's like the doc I used to work for would say, "No one should die without the benefit of steroids". (cortico-steroids and the like).