The prescription of medications for diagnoses, to age groups, or in doses other than the FDA-approved ones, is a common, legal, and necessary practice in medicine today. This practice is known as off-label use or off-label prescribing. Those new to this issue may wonder why physicians and other prescribers would ever deviate from prescribing in territory where the FDA has not given their stamp of approval.
In the ideal world, clinical trials would be conducted for all patient populations and diagnoses for which various medications might be useful. In reality, though, this is neither practical nor possible. Consequently, many patient populations and many patients with particular diagnoses would have few treatment options available if the medical establishment avoided off-label prescribing.
For example, child psychiatry is a huge area where millions of mentally ill children and adolescents depend on off-label medications. The field of general pediatrics is no different. The fact is that most medications are not tested in children. But, does that mean that
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The pharmaceutical industry is currently up in arms about the FDA not moving quickly enough to establish clear marketing guidelines for them so that they can safely begin using social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Pharma has eagerly been wanting to expand into social media since it is quickly becoming a standard method for consumers to obtain information. Recently hearings have been held about this topic, and a website, “Everything about the FDA, internet & social media,” has been set up to promote the cause.
Personally I’d much rather see them be allowed to twitter away in exchange for my children not having to be bombarded by erectile dysfunction ads on TV…
What do you think? Please leave your comments–you may do so anonymously.
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