If you believe that the latest blockbuster medication is worth a
premium price over your generic brand, or that doctors have access
to all the information they need about a drug's safety and
effectiveness each time they write a prescription, Dr. Jerry Avorn
has some sobering news. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of
patient care, teaching, and research at Harvard Medical School, he
shares his firsthand experience of the wide gap in our knowledge of
the effectiveness of one medication as compared to another. In
"Powerful Medicines, "he reminds us that every pill we take
represents a delicate compromise between the promise of healing,
the risk of side effects, and an increasingly daunting price. The
stakes on each front grow higher every year as new drugs with
impressive power, worrisome side effects, and troubling costs are
introduced.
This is a comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at issues that
affect everyone: our shortage of data comparing the worth of
similar drugs for the same condition; alarming lapses in the
detection of lethal side effects; the underuse of life-saving
medications; lavish marketing campaigns that influence what doctors
prescribe; and the resulting upward spiral of costs that places
vital drugs beyond the reach of many Americans.
In this engagingly written book, Dr. Avorn asks questions that will
interest every consumer: How can a product judged safe by the Food
and Drug Administration turn out to have unexpectedly lethal side
effects? Why has the nation's drug bill been growing at nearly 20
percent per year? How can physicians and patients pick the best
medication in its class? How do doctors actually make their
prescribing decisions, and why do those decisions sometimes go
wrong? Why do so many Americans suffer preventable illnesses and
deaths that proper drug use could have averted? How can the nation
gain control over its escalating drug budget without resorting to
rationing or draconian governmental controls?
Using clinical case histories taken from his own work as a
practitioner, researcher, and advocate, Dr. Avorn demonstrates the
impressive power of the well-conceived prescription as well as the
debacles that can result when medications are misused. He describes
an innovative program that employs the pharmaceutical industry's
own marketing techniques to reduce use of some of the most
overprescribed and overpriced products. "Powerful Medicines" offers
timely and practical advice on how the nation can improve its
drug-approval process, and how patients can work with doctors to
make sure their prescriptions are safe, effective, and as
affordable as possible.
This is a passionate and provocative call for action as well as a
compelling work of clear-headed science.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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