LifeCare Chiropractic

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prescription drugs

Profiting from Pain: Where Prescription Drugs Dollars Go – (09-12-02)

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Profiting from Pain: Where Prescription Drugs Dollars Go

While this is a very long report, I can summarize it for you. Contrary to popular belief, most of pharmaceutical companies’ budgets do not go towards research and development. Rather, advertising and marketing account for 1.5 to 2x the costs of R and D. Not to mention the salaries of the CEOs. The amount of money that the drug companies spend in advertising is staggering and is in the billions of dollars PER MONTH. Their profitability has never been in question. Unfortunately, many patients consider the cost of drugs as an inelastic demand and the marketplace will probably never allow for the cost to come down–the insurance companies and the drug companies have ties that are too strong. If you have time, read the article; it is very eye-opening.

Read entire article here

Medication management in Primary and Secondary Schools – (04-16-01)

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Medication management in Primary and Secondary Schools

Excuse me for being mildly distressed at this article. We have a situation where a “widespread use” of prescription drugs is present in our school systems. Do we worry about why all these children are medicated? No. We worry about how to adequately and safely deliver the drugs to the children in a school setting. I cannot begin to describe how disturbing this trend is. Instead of trying to manage the problem, we need to figure out WHY these kids are on these drugs and how to FIX the problem.

J Am Pharm Assoc 41(1):67-77, 2001 Pharmacists and school nurses must cross professional borders if they wish to play a role in solving this important drug therapy problem. Pharmacists can provide therapeutic and contextual perspectives on the problem, while school nurses can implement solutions within the schools.

THE TREND TOWARDS PRESCRIPTION DRUGS – (05-29-06)

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The Changing Face of Teenage Drug Abuse The Trend toward Prescription Drugs

We feed our kids drugs (both prescription and OTC) like they’re candy. Many kids are on long term drug regimines for conditions like ADD and ADHS. Their parents both condone the children’s drug regimen and take drugs themselves when needed. Why should anyone be surprised to then find that these kids will choose wisely when they get older when it comes to both illicit and prescription drugs?

Read entire article here

BUT MY PRESCRIPTION IS FDA APPROVED…

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Apparently, there are still many people who believe that, because a drug is approved, that it must be both really effective and without serious side effects. Must be pretty dark in that cave.

The reality is far from the perception. There are no shortage of accusations and historical examples that the FDA’s job of regulating drugs is under strong influence from the drug companies themselves. Kind of like the proverbial fox guarding the hen house.

Many drugs that are approved are later pulled off the market or giving black box warnings years after their initial approval. Frequently, much damage occurs before the mistake is realized. Vioxx was a perfect example, with estimations of over 100,000 heart attacks related to its use before it was pulled off the market.

As far as efficacy, many times a drug is approved without any advantage over currently available, cheaper drugs. These are referred to as the “me too” drugs.

So, in this particular study, authors questioned almost 3,000 adults and found that misinformation is quite common. 39% believed that the FDA only approves drugs that are extremely effective. One quarter of the group believed that the FDA only approves drugs that are without significant side effects. A little misguided, but probably not surprising given the money the drug companies spend on direct to consumer advertising to steer the sheep towards new drugs.

Furthermore, when these participants were educated about the realities, they were more likely to chose a drug with a longer history of safer and a drug with documented positive outcomes (in this case a drug preventing heart attacks vs just lowering cholesterol).