what next?

[Tom W.]

I saw an ad on TV today that said if you have taken some such drug ( I forget the name ) and it caused you to go into complusive gambling to call the number on the screen, as you'd be entitled to a cash settlement. I almost fell off the couch laughing. What's next ?

[Rayolamp]

Saw a commercial the other day about a doggy poop game, thought it was a joke until the wife confirmed it was a real game!

[Bzcraig]

Daytime TV is scary!

[Tom W.]

Better than drugs, I guess.....

[Rayolamp]

I hardly watch it anymore, but when I do I understand why a lot of folks are, lets just say "off".

[Finster101]

Do you listen to the side affects mentioned in so many of the drug commercials? I'm not so sure they are much better than the condition they are meant to treat!

[Rayolamp]

LOL, this drug cures acme---fine print, may cause sudden death!

[Finster101]

Acme ? 204755LOL

[popper]

But wait...."

[Tom W.]

I know first hand that plavix will cause internal bleeding. I had to have three liters pumped from my abdominal cavity and the next day or two my stomach had to be cauterized.... cancer ain't for sissies..

[Taylor]

I got a check from ATT for .44 cents. I take meds for joint pain.I have other meds that cause joint pain.I didn't think my knees needed any help.Yeah,sometimes the side effects are worst than what you are tryinfg to cure.

I found that celebrex works well for me.I ask the VA for it.Denied.But you'll give me ******? Seems to me that you will give me meds to create stiffness in one joint,but not take it out of another.He didn't see the humor in that.

[mold maker]

The best Drs. are just well-educated quacks. At best they give you a SWAG and hope you survive the side effects of the drugs or procedures they prescribe on the advice of the drug salesman.
Thank goodness I've had a healthy life with only a couple cases of drug interaction or reaction, but I've seen drug reactions that were life-threatening.

[bedbugbilly]

There are many good "Physicians" in this world who got in to medicine for the right reasons . . . . and there are many "Doctors" out there who got in to it for the wrong reasons. Doctors are not God, unfortunately, many of them have the dogs that make them think ethic are. It makes yo wonder just how many of these new "miracle drugs" are prescribed and they are unnecessary. I remember my cardiologist putting me on a cholesterol medication a number of years ago. He told me how good it was and how it would greatly improve my levels. Hmmmm . . . a month on it and I could hardly walk my legs hurt so bad - I was about ready to go pre-plan my funeral arrangements - and I'm serious about that. I stopped taking it and everything went back to normal. A couple of weeks later, I read an article in the paper about how the education was being over-prescribed and mainly because the prescribing doctors had investments in the drug company that came out with it. My next appointment with the cardiologist I sort of voiced my displeasure with the whole thing and told him I had stopped taking it and why. He just kind of shrugged his shoulders and said, "yea, some people react to it that way". Like I said, there are a lot of good doctors out there and there are a lot of bad ones. But if you think that the majority of the doctors, the AMA, the drug companies and the politicians all sleep in separate bedrooms, think again. They all share the same bed. And the lawyers, nothing more than ambulance chasers, who see the opportunity to make money on such things as the side effects of the drugs aren't much better . . . . they just change the sheets on the bed before they all curl up together for a nice nap.

[RGrosz]

I was in the hospital getting a toe removed. The doctor put me on some sort of pill to control the infection. After a day or so my joints hurt so bad I couldn't stand it The next time the nurse came in to change the IV, I wouldn't let her. She got all mad and almost forced me. Stood my ground. Had to explain to her and several doctors (about 6X) why and that I refused to take it. Only I Doctor came back the next day and said he looked it up and one of the side effects (in a limited number of people) was joint pain and the treatment was take the stuff off and try something else. By the way once I stopped them started feeling better.
Rob

[WILCO]

Good for you Rob. Best wishes as you move forward.

[smokeywolf]

Only TV commercials I see are on HULU, as we're not hooked up to or subscribe to cable or satellite.
A few months back I heard one of drug company commercials that listed "May cause suicidal thoughts and actions." as a possible side-effect. Wife and I joke about it now, "May cause mild death."

[runfiverun]

that TV ad is for abilify.
it also causes diabetes.

but it was used to treat schizophrenia and to control the very audible voices in the patient.
pick one.
remove the voices telling the patient to kill everyone around them.
or complain about the side affects.

[woodbutcher]

[smilie=b: Yep,I found out many years ago that drs are just as big a liars,thieves and crooks as in any profession.Don`t mind speaking my mind to them either.One of them said show me some respect.I said when you start showing ME some respect.And you have to earn my respect as a dr and a person first,I don`t hand out respect on a silver platter just because you or anyone else has some fancy title attached to their name.That pretty much shut him down real fast.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[wgr]

I saw an ad on TV today that said if you have taken some such drug ( I forget the name ) and it caused you to go into complusive gambling to call the number on the screen, as you'd be entitled to a cash settlement. I almost fell off the couch laughing. What's next ?one of them is[ requip]

[popper]

The best Drs. are just well-educated quacks Totally disagree. Well educated mechanics. Yes, many make their $ from procedures and those don't always go well.

[MaryB]

And they wonder why healthcare in the USA costs so much...

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Lots of drugs can cause a person to lapse into just about anything obsessive. The question is whether the benefits of the drug are nonetheless worth having. If it is an unlawful recreational drug, tough. Let him sue his pusher if he can.

With prescription drugs the problem is that there are now so many that no doctor, especially a busy one, can possibly know all but the most alarming effects of all of them. Those runfiverun mentions could, in a particular patient, mean happy quiescence, compulsive gambling or not becoming Joan of Arc.

We have had dramatic pharmacological disasters in the past. The big one was thalidomide, in many respects a ad safe and valuable drug, which I believe they even tested on pregnant women, without realising that the first forty days of pregnancy were drastically different. (It wasn't helped by beginning in Germany, where the law prevented the collection of statistics on deformed newborns, due to how such statistics had been used by the Nazis.) I think the drug approval system is much better now at guarding against big failures like that - but the price is that a lot of us are suffering badly through not even hearing of drugs which aren't authorised or are slow in becoming authorised.

But now we are talking about milder effects, especially those which may unleash tendencies dormant in only some individuals, who know they should resist them. That is far lmore contributory negligence by the patient than there can be for purely physical harm, let alone if you were a foetus at the time. The greatest good of the greatest number lies in doctors learning and considering as much as is practical, and prescribing when they think there is need. Those drugs don't march you into a casino and force your hand into your pocket.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrong_Trousers

We should also remember that the substance which does by far the most harm by releasing suppressed compulsions, is available to anyone over eighteen or twenty-one, in any supermarket.

A good doctor is a scientist and an artist, who often has to infer much from little, about illnesses which don't come with labels on them. Those years of hard work and expenditure merit respect. Of course a convincing and sympathetic manner with patients matters. But a quack is far more likely to have the manner without the insight than the other way around. What the best doctors long for and compete for, is a job somewhere they will be universally valued and respected. Maybe that is where they went.