Pharmaceutical drug proven ineffective yet it’s been prescribed for years
/By Paul Scicluna
This pharmaceutical drug has been used to treat Alzheimer’s patients for years yet it appears to be of no benefit to those who may be in the early stages of the disease, it was reported by CNN.
Even though this drug is approved by the FDA for only moderate to severe cases, physicians have been prescribing it for milder cases which has been to no avail, according to a study and reported by CNN.
"We conclude that there is a lack of efficacy in mild Alzheimer's," says the study's lead researcher, Lon Schneider, M.D., a professor of psychiatry, neurology, and gerontology at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. "We think physicians, patients, and caregivers should simply know this. Nearly one-fifth of all people with mild Alzheimer's received the drug in 2006, and the rates may be far higher in some hospitals and practices, according to the study, which appears in the journal Archives of Neurology. Many neurologists - 40 percent, by one estimate - even prescribe the drug for mild cognitive impairment, a condition that may or may not progress to full-blown dementia.”
Source: CNN.com April 2011
If this drug has shown to have little to no effect in the treatment of Alzheimer’s then why is it being given to patients? Let me tell you, this isn’t the first time drugs have been given to patients where they’ve been shown that they don’t have much effect in the treatment of that particular disease.
How does this happen? I’m sure the patients would have preferred not to consume these drugs, let alone have the side effects of these drugs rattle throughout their bodies if they didn’t need them. Hmmmmm… I wonder if they’ll get compensation and a refund for being prescribed and sold drugs that they didn’t need in the first place?
Yeah right... where is the protection for the patient? Nope, there’s only protection for the big companies... as always it’s the companies that are well looked after not the patient!
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