Are you taking any of these dangerous drugs?

[JohnyCanuck]

By Martha Rosenberg

It was one step forward and two steps back for safe US prescription drugs in 2010.

There was public outcry against Avandia, the heart attack-associated diabetes drug (and the conflicts of interest that kept it on the market) but some say Actos and Byetta, which will take up some of the slack, are no safer.

Meridia, an amphetamine-like diet pill, and Darvon, the pain pill, were withdrawn. But Nuvugil, an extreme and dangerous stimulant was pushed as a “wakefulness” drug for “excessive sleepiness” (including to college kids with their well known narcolepsy and shift study sleep disorder.) And Singulair, Merck’s number one asthma and allergy drug, was said to cause ADHD symptoms in children by Fox news this month. Oops.

Meanwhile, even though antidepressants like Paxil and Cymbalta are linked to mood dysregulation and suicide, FDA approved Cymbalta for arthritis and lower back pain this month anyway.

Still, here are some drugs you may want to save for national Take Back Prescriptions day.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6653.shtml

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I was most surprised about Darvon

because it's been around for so long. I was prescribed it once for pain probably 40 years ago. The only drug I take now is Synthroid. I refused the HRT and the bone-strengthening stuff 10 years ago when they tried to foist it on me, and I'm doing fine.

I prefer cannabis for everything. It seems to work. :)

[FirstLight]

2. delete...dupe...n/t

[FirstLight]

3. cymbalta? really?

never had a problem, been taking it for a couple years or more... interesting. The only bad days I have seem to be more PMS related, lol

i'd switch, but i don't like playing with that stuff and I don't trust the clinic to be very smart about monitoring things either...

[uppityperson]

8. Main problem I've hear with cymbalta is when you stop.

If it works for you, that is good. I have heard from people who were on it how awful it was during the time getting off it, hearing things, really nasty dreams, etc.

[FirstLight]

15. good to know

ya, i have missed a day or two because of the pharmacy and i get really dizzy...

[Flubadubya]

4. Nuvigil... not Nuvugil

Oh well... seems if you are going to write an article you ought to spell your subject right, eh? :shrug:

...oh, and I'm not referring to the OP, of course, just the author of the article.

[Mojorabbit]

7. I was on this to help my energy levels

as I have MS. It worked well but only for a while. A Shame because I felt great on it at first.

[tammywammy]

5. Darvocet

I'm not currently taking it, but have a bottle around here. I've had a prescription for it since I was 18 and had (have still) a bulging disk in my back.

[Brickbat]

6. I was on Paxil and it was a huge help.

[jwirr]

9. How does one know if Crestor is causing a problem since I have

had some pretty serious aches and pains for years before starting to take it?

[madmom]

10. I'm taking actos, haven't heard anything bad about it yet.

:shrug:

[cutlassmama]

14. I took it for years too, before losing weight. The article didn't say how

bad it was. I hope it's not something serious. I have high LDL cholesterol and supposedly some of my meds can cause that, but I'm not sure which ones.

[SoCalDem]

11. and the one that can cause CANCER...it's an allegry med, I think

:grr:

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

12. You thought the FDA was slack before?

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, currently awaiting Senate approval, will give the FDA unprecedented discretion to regulate U.S. food production in the name of food safety, but the Sheeple of America who have given this bill wide public support have not the slightest idea of the impact on the food they eat or the food they grow themselves, nor do they even realize that the government office responsible for robo-signing potentially dangerous drugs into the marketplace will now have even greater powers. Powers that are essentially in the hands of Big Pharma and Big Farma.

[pipi_k]

13. Byetta looked really great at first...

Mr P is a type II diabetic who used it for a couple of years. It gave him wonderful control, but...

He lost weight on it. Too much. He wasn't really that much overweight in the first place. People he hadn't seen for a while were actually shocked at how awful he looked.

Not only that, but his pancreatic enzymes started doing some weird stuff.

And he had many hypo episodes that were extremely scary...one time he had a Bg level of 29 here at home.

It almost/could have killed him, and he stopped.

[ThomCat]

16. I take Topomax. They are right about it robbing you of your

memory. Which sucks, because I already have damned so little short term memory left to lose. :(

"Topamax is referred to as “Stupamax” in the military"

Yeah, I can definitely understand why. I can cause not just memory problems, but also disorientation and confusion sometimes too. Good time! :sarcasm:

I'd love to stop taking it, but it's the only med that prevents my migraines. Down from 18 per month to 4 per month. Getting back 14 lost days per month! Those are days that used to be spent in total misery, in agony, in total silence and darkness hoping the pain would either kill me or go away. Now, the fewer migraines I do still get aren't as severe.

So, yes, this med leaves me with holes in my memory and makes it hard to think at times, but if I have to chose this or life with the migraines, it's no choice at all.

:shrug:

[bigmonkey]

17. I was fascinated to read today about cluster headache treatment and psychedelics.

It was here: http://therevealer.org/archives/5262
It reminded me of a friend I knew who said that taking LSD had cured him of his migraines. I've seen this mentioned more than once in articles I've read. Yep, fascinating.