Take responsibility for yourself

Good old Reader's Digest - one of my favorite magazines - has done it again with a "duh" article.

In the April 2005 issue, p. 102, an article titled, "A Dose of Reality" by Irene S. Levine, Ph.D., talks about the risks involved in prescription drugs and how to decide if you ignore them or not. It begins with the removal of Vioxx from the market and the subsequent panic in America.

Significantly, it continues with the quote, "Suddenly, ads for the drug were replaced with ads looking for Vioxx 'victims.'" Here we go again. Law firms jumped at the chance to encourage law suits by those who had taken Vioxx. (which, by the way, was a wonder drug for my arthritis). Merck stock plummeted, and they could be liable for billions of dollars.

Now we're dubious about still more drugs. We accuse the FDA of hiding information; we question the efficacy of clinical trials. Then it raises a very valid question: "Do Americans expect drugs to be risk-free? And, if someone suffers a bad reaction, will lawyers rather than doctors be the first people we call?"

And, I wonder, who is responsible for underwriting (pun intended) this distrust and panic? Answer: the US media. We hear about the bad side effects for a few people and the sensationalized removal of a drug from pharmacy shelves. The news is delivered with accusatory dialogue as though it were a travesty and an outrage. We hear it, and we begin to doubt our physicians and our pharmaceutical companies. As the article points out, out of fear we also decide to eliminate other of our meds: a risky venture in some cases.

When do we begin to take responsibility for ourselves? With all the information available through the internet, through pharmacists and physicians, and through distributed inserts in the prescriptions themselves, when do we begin to inform ourselves about the drugs we take and the side effects?

Prescription drugs have aided in the longer life expectancy that we now enjoy. We beg for drugs to cure terrible diseases like cancer and HIV, yet we're quick to call an attorney if we suffer a side effect from ones already on the shelves. What incentive is this for drug companies to invest in R&D for newer, better drugs?

We need to wake up, arm ourselves with information, make intelligent decisions, and take responsibility for our own welfare. More importantly, we need to remember that no medicine is entirely risk-free because no human being is exactly like the others. And we need to take the media outrage with a grain of salt before overreacting.

And that's how I see it.