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Interesting Facts about Health Conditions & Medications
- The average cost of developing and bringing a new prescription drug
to market is $802 million. It usually takes between 10 and 15 years
to develop and bring a new medication to market.
- Over 90% of drugs entering clinical trials fail to make it to market.
- Prescription Drugs are the fastest growing sector of worldwide health
care costs with health care costs continuing to be the largest component
of most governments budgets.
- Each year in the United States, more than 160 million prescriptions
are written for antibiotics. Humans consume 235 million doses of antibiotics
annually. It is estimated that 20%-50% of that use is unnecessary.
- Why is it so difficult to find a powerful pain-killing medication
that does not produce addiction? Over the years, pharmaceutical companies
have tried to separate these two pharmacological qualities. Perhaps
because the brain areas involved with pain reduction and those involved
with drug dependence are connected, it has been almost impossible to
find powerful "non-addicting" painkillers that block pain transmission.
On the other hand, perhaps dependence on drugs and analgesia (pain reduction)
are two different phenomena that will someday be separated, as more
refined research evolves in this important area.
- The old time barbiturates that have mostly been replaced by newer
drugs were powerful sedatives and hypnotics. That is, they greatly depressed
the nervous system by as-yet-unknown mechanisms. They caused a lasting
hangover when used to promote sleep, with a great impairment in functioning
the day after they were given. They were also highly dependence-producing,
which is the main reason they are no longer therapeutically used.
- Lithium, used for the treatment of bipolar illness, is an interesting
drug. It is not addicting, perhaps because people understand that it
is highly toxic if the dose is not regulated carefully. More importantly,
it probably does not produce a "high" for those who like to use drugs
for that reason.
- Caffeine is one of the safest "drugs" known. It is not addicting,
the lethal dose is very high, and it has no toxic effects on body organs.
People who are sensitive to caffeine, however, can have altered heart
rate with higher doses.
- How do nicotine patches help people stop smoking? The patches (and
gum) substitute for the nicotine in cigarettes, and when a quitter uses
the patches or gum the intent is to reduce the nicotine amounts over
a period of several weeks, to the point where the person no longer requires
nicotine. In other words, patches and gum reduce the discomfort of withdrawal
from nicotine. They also temporarily reduce the craving for nicotine
in cigarettes by replacing the nicotine until the person can be weaned
off the drug.
- What is a "placebo effect"? Almost every drug (especially those that
affect brain function) has a placebo effect. This is an unexplained
therapeutic (or counter-therapeutic) effect that does not involve the
drug's pharmacology. If a large group of people is given a sugar pill
for anxiety, depression, pain relief, etc., approximately 30% of the
people will have a reduction in anxiety, depression, or pain. The reasons
are not entirely clear, but one thought is that people given any medical
attention will expect to get better. Good research on new treatments,
then, should include a "control" (inactive medication or treatment)
to determine how many positive placebo responders are in the experiment.
Only treatments that are significantly better than placebo should be
marketed.
- What are the differences between a "sedative", "tranquilizer", "anxiolytic",
and "neuroleptic"? They are all related. The word "sedative" is a general
(older) term for anything that calms people down. "Tranquilizer" is
a more specialized (older) term for a drug that reduces anxiety ("minor"
tranquilizer) or reduces psychotic symptoms ("major" tranquilizer).
These terms have mostly been replaced by "anxiolytics" (anxiety reducers)
and "neuroleptics" (anti-schizophrenic drugs).
- Large manufacturers like Merck and Pfizer spent twice as much on advertising
and marketing cost than they do on research costs.
- By law when a physician prescribes drugs for a patient, the physician
is required to ensure that the patient is fully informed of the drugs
risks and benefits and consents to the drug therapy with full informed
knowledge. Statistics show that this occurs in less than 20% of the
patient population.
- The R sign used today on pharmaceutical prescriptions was originally
an astrological sign for the planet Jupiter The use of this sign originated
in the Middle Ages, when doctors believed that the planets influenced
Health. Jupiter was thought to be the most powerful of all the heavenly
bodies in curing disease.
- Most common mistakes children make with medicines are:
- Stopping too soon
- Taking too little
- Taking too much
- Refusing to take the medicine
- 96% of patients don’t ask any questions about their prescriptions.
- Improper use of prescription medicines costs the economy over $15
billion per year.
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