I am very concerned about the new drugs the drug companies are producing to treat various diseases and conditions. One especially has impacted my life and my wife’s to the extent that we had the most disastrous ten months of our lives. I am presently 72 and my wife is 68 and we were very active and spent as much time as we could watching our five grandchildren. If that does not keep you in pretty good shape then nothing else will.

My wife has a condition known as gastroparesis which is the abnormal emptying of the stomach into the digestive tract. The stomach empties very slowly and causes discomfort to the person. It can be very disconcerting. We went to a gastroentrologist and he prescribed a drug called metroclopromide. The name metoclopromide is the generic term for Reglan, made by various manufacturers. She took this drug at every meal from April up to December. It seemed to work well for the first few months.

By June she started having the most severe feelings of nervousness and insomnia. Jerking movements of the legs and feet and the inability to sit still. Jaw clenching and mouth twisting and chewing motions. The symptoms seem to mimic parkinsonism to a degree with facial grimacing and lassitude, and mainly described by a disorder called tardive dyskinesia with hand tremors and involuntary movements of the trunk and extremities and the mouth and face. The person develops the inability to sit still and deep depression develops and suicidal feelings can develop.

I can remember feeling as if I were going to lose her to a possible physical and or mental breakdown. We were frantic going from one doctor to another for help in finding out what was happening and why? The doctors tried many different medications and none made a big enough difference to help in any real way. We went to see a psychiatrist and an internist and a parkinson specialist and several other specialists trying to find the cause of all these symptoms.

By the time things became really bad, she lost her appetite altogether and ate very little and stopped taking the metoclopramide in December. Things started to improve slightly and we started to look on the web for things we could try. At the time we did not connect the medication to the problems. We eventually found that the drug had been investigated because of the great many people that were reporting adverse symptoms and reactions and that the FDA had issued a black box warning to be placed on metoclopramide . When we did look up the drug we found that their were many lawsuits going forward and even class action suits. The other problem was that doctors were not advised about strictly limiting the use of the drug for periods of not more than six weeks. This warning came in late February of 09.

After several months the symptoms she had, started to ease up but very slowly. The return of feeling and the loss of the abnormal movements took a period of several months. Thank God they gradually disappeared after the awful time we spent dealing with them and trying to stop them by using every means we knew of. It was a very stressful time in our lives. We had literally gone through hell.

I have looked up the effects of this medication and in a large number of cases the symptoms are irreversible. Their are so many problems associated with this medication that I am very surprised that the FDA has allowed its use. It was not until February that they mandated a black box warning for the drug. And that only after the emergence of the cases effecting all those people and the seriousness of the symptoms.

Our case is one of many that have been effected by the use of this drug. I can only imagine how many other drugs their are that have not been completely tested and their contraindications and side effects thoroughly tested. It seems as if the drug companies are trying to get these drugs to the market so fast, they lose sight of the very real possibilities of danger to the patient.

I am sure that their are many people who would be willing to take any medications if they could only relieve the symptoms that they have. People will try anything to treat what they are going through and especially to stop pain at any cost. That does not mean that dangerous drugs should be made available to a marketplace without the most thorough and complete testing possible.

Their are places where drug trials are made involving people who will accept any risk to relieve their symptoms or diminish their pain or for any number of problems they have. This does not give the drug companies the right to put drugs into the marketplace without rigorous testing as to length of use, dosages, and every conceivable problem that could arise.

No drug is without some risk but it is their duty to make that risk as small as is humanly possible for each and every drug they place into the marketplace. The FDA should be more than just a rubber stamp for the information the drug companies supply from their own investigations and tests. Independent testing must be stressed for every new drug submitted from drug companies to the FDA and be backed up by universities equipped to do the testing.

Their would be a great many problems to be worked out to set up a program like that but it must not be run by the government. They have an abysmal record in running any program for the benefit of the people without getting all the special interests involved. It seems that today in Washington, it is the largest pig trough for all the special interests to line up and get their cut out of every program set up. Senators and congresspeople also line up for their contributors to get special treatment and make money.

The problem remains for us to receive the best and safest and most tested drugs for human consumption to treat specific problems that humans can devise. Drugs with side effects that can be more dangerous than the conditions they are to treat must be eliminated and not put on the market just so drug companies can recoup the money they spent on research if the drug does not pan out as safe.

The FDA had been set up to test and approve or disapprove drugs based on information provided but we must insist that they provide rigorous testing on their own and not accept drug trial information as gospel from drug companies.It is a very complicated system we have now but it must be made more open and able to be checked and rechecked. Doctors can only use drugs safely if they are given complete and honest and up to date information about the drugs they prescribe for their patients with all the side effects honestly given them from the FDA and not supplied by drug companies alone. Drug companies send their representatives around to doctors offices to ply them with trips, free vacations, dinners, and many other types of gifts to influence the way they prescribe and use their products over others. This graft has to stop. Drug companies must not be allowed to give any inducements to doctors or hospitals for them to use one drug over another for any reason other than it is a superior product.

Drug companies could hold seminars and invite all doctors and give them all dinner while explaining the new drugs and their uses and their testing and safety. Their is nothing wrong with that approach as it gives the doctor what they need to know and the drug company the audience to prove their drugs efficacy. If we as a nation of consumers do not take the time to look into what is going on around us and try and take steps to do what we can to improve things for ourselves and our children then we will deserve what we get. The drugs we use for ourselves and our children make it our responsibility to assure their safety. Ask the doctors if the drugs they are prescribing are free from side effects harmful to us. Do not be afraid to speak up! If you do not , then who will.

It is up to you America to make the time for problems that effect us all and make changes in the laws and rules and regulations that allow unfair practices to continue. Remember! ” All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing ” Wake up people!

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.