A recent study found that 87% of patients who experienced an adverse symptom from a prescribed drug spoke to their doctor. However less than half of the doctors went through with filing the adverse event paperwork to notify the drug manufacturer. Why is this?
The research was published in the latest issue of Drug Safety. Doctors dismissed patients' complaints, and told them their symptoms were not connected to use of the drug. One doctor commented that the time it takes to complete the adverse event drug paperwork is time-consuming, and often not worth it unless it is life threatening. Would Hippocrates have accepted that answer? Please review your Hippocratic Oath, doc.
Your doctor is too busy to file the necessary paperwork to notify the FDA a drug is potentially harmful. What is a patient to do? Good question and here's an answer! If you experienced any adverse side effects from the use of a prescription drug, please let the FDA know. Click BEGIN and bring this monkey business to an end!
1. This is definitely a step in the right direction, although it is unclear whether the FDA will give the same weight to voluntarily patient adverse reactions filed as they do to filings from doctors. We should require EMT's to file these reports, since the ambulance crews are typically the ones who deal with the adverse effects first-hand. But patients should not hesitate to file these reports; they get classified by drug so the agency can count the number of reports for each drug, and that could go a long way towards forcing the pharmaceutical industry to address these problems, or else open the doors to a competitor who will address the issue.
Posted at 9:20AM on Sep 5th 2007 by Scott