Take Your Medicine, It Probably Won’t Work
Sep 27th, 2006 at 11:49 am by Susie
Good Slate piece on the odds of your prescription medicine actually doing the thing for which you’re taking it.
I remember a few years ago the head of the British company Glaxo Smith Kline causing an uproar when he offhandedly mentioned that anti-depressants “only work for thirty percent” of the people who take them. There was a big uproar, but of course no one believed him and the stock was fine.
He was right, though. Our individual biology is such that not all drugs work with all people. I don’t know if most doctors know that (I don’t fill most prescriptions anyway, so for me, it’s a moot point). The Holy Grail researchers seek is a method by which drugs can be individually (and cheaply) designed for patients.
A good doctor (30% of them?) cooperating closely with an attentive patient can often find a useful drug match for that patient and the problem in question. That make take some time and several tries. There is no “one size fits all” for many classes of medicine, antidepressants being a prime example.
On the other hand, if you have been bitten by a rabid bat, or have tuberculosis, or are experiencing a severe allergic reaction, don’t shop around! Take what the (hopefully) good doctor tells you to take. You may have only one chance to be right, and the doctor, with his/her experience, can probably make a better choice than you could — on short notice.
Presiciptions not filled? Why?
Well, when you consider that most diet pills don’t work, and yet it’s still a billion dollar industry… well, this story isn’t that surprising.