One day, we are going to work. Mid-day, we start to feel sick. We go to the doctor’s office. We are evaluated and given a pill to get better.
Sounds like a normal story, right?
Typically, we take medication and we get better. However, what happens when we don’t comply with the doctor’s instructions or if the symptoms get worse?
We know the drug’s side effects are listed on literature included with most medications. For those medications that are taking in conjunction, a doctor and/or pharmacist will let us know what we can expect; however, what do we do about the side effects that may not be known to us and purposely hidden?
I recently watched a documentary called “The Dark Side of a Pill,” and it certainly shines light on a perspective that is not normally seen. (The entire video is embedded at the end of this post) The video showed that a certain percentage of people who took anti-depressants showed suicidal or homicidal behavior within the first set of days. While we know that there are medications that have extreme side effects, what might not have been expected was the drug manufacturer hid that information in order to keep afloat or to make a profit.
There are certain regulations in which a pharmaceutical drug must pass before being released into the market. Sometimes, one or two drugs can cause a company to make its big financial break, and this was no exception. During the approval process for Prozac in Germany, Germany rejected the anti-depressant drug because it was more harmful than beneficial. When FDA approval was sought, a different version of the documents was submitted. Upon their own investigation, the FDA found questionable results and inquired about the reasoning behind Germany’s rejection, but the company, Eli Lilly, had stated that they answered all questions posed to them and had not heard from Germany in over 10 months with doubts or questions.
Prozac was later approved by the FDA for release in the U.S. Since then, Prozac and other anti-depressant drugs have been released and have been in use by the global market for over 15 years. A statement released by Eli Lilly showed that by their research, this drug has helped many users, and they strive to meet the evolving FDA criteria. During the same time period, many patients, doctors, and healthcare providers questioned the efficacy of the drug. As a result, at a later date, warnings were placed with the anti-depressants to provide awareness of suicidal thoughts and behavior.
Not surprisingly, there is more to this story than meets the eye.
This story is not about assigning blame to a company or to prove if a drug is effective. The Dark Side of a Pill shows a domino cause-and-effect scenario from the producer to the patient, where miscommunication resulted – and may continue to result – in patients engaging in non-typical behavior, such as murder or suicide.
Ranbaxy, an Indian drug company, has dealt with multiple scandals in which the company falsified data to win FDA approvals for another set of generic drugs. The company failed to meet the FDA standards and continued to make inaccurate statements. In this particular case, the company distributed bad drugs that resulted in patients not getting better or even killing themselves.
Over the years, we read and hear about select pharmaceutical companies failing to meet regulations or committing some type of wrongdoing, but these particular scenarios are particularly alarming. They are alarming because it indicates that there is a percentage of people who may get substantially worse, and in ways that were unexpected, rather than better. They are alarming because it interferes with the oath that healthcare providers abide by, the Hippocratic Oath. If a patient asks for information about a specific drug, doctors and pharmacists should be able to provide any recommendations and instructions based on what is expected in the drugs, and they should be able to rely on the pharmaceutical companies, who manufacture the drugs, to help them perform their duty with the highest level of care. The trust gets broken in these relationships within all groups – patients, providers, pharmaceutical companies, and government entities, and this is all in the name of profit. Any type of business should show integrity, authenticity, and responsibility in their practice, whether it is dispensing drugs or providing a service, and trust is an indispensable part of the foundation. Once it is broken, it is almost too difficult to restore. These two cases put a fear into a person on whether the drugs we are purchasing will actually be beneficial or detrimental. It can make us doubt the experts, those who we have entrusted to help us get better, and as an end note, that is depressing indeed.
If the video fails to load, you can view it here: https://www.linktv.org/programs/the-dark-side-of-a-pill
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