E-drug: Overdose: The Case Against the Drug Companies
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Jay S. Cohen MD - Overdose: The Case Against the Drug
Companies New York: Tarcher-Putnam, 2001. 318p. ISBN
1-58542-123-5.
Jay Cohen is an academic physician in San Diego. His book deals
with a very underdiscussed issue that is central to the rational use of
drugs, namely that many official dosage recommendations are a) too
high, b) take no account of the normal biological variation between
people.
This leads to vast numbers of avoidable adverse effects, deprives
many people in whom lower doses would work of effective
treatments, wastes money, and is counter-educational in terms of
rational use of drugs.
It analyses the commercial and regulatory causes of this behaviour
and discusses what needs to be done - a lot!
A good book, though centred on the US situation & mostly ignoring
the rest of the world, and largely using the US brand names without
INNs. I strongly recommend it as a source of themes, ideas and
examples for e-druggers.
Andrew Herxheimer
e-mail: andrew_herxheimer@compuserve.com
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