You can’t ignore the fact that the medical profession is built around drugs, or medicine, the substances used in treating diseases and ailments.
After all, when referring to the practice of medicine itself, the operative term is indeed “medicine.” And interestingly, when I looked up that word in a dictionary, the first thing I saw was the substance, or drugs, reference and the second was to the “art or science of restoring or preserving health.”
You’d think it would be the other way around, since a physician subscribes a drug to someone within the framework of practicing medicine.
But at what point does a drug become a drawback in and of itself? More specifically, what if it causes more problems than it cures?
You can’t watch television anymore without seeing all kinds of advertisements for various “miracle” drugs.
Especially on daytime TV — a vast wasteland of ads for Social Security disability lawyers, attorneys seeking clients who’ve been harmed by hazardous things in workplaces such as asbestos and lawyers wanting to represent victims of viewers who’ve gone insane by watching too much daytime TV and chopped up people with an ax.
Then there are those pesky promotions for hearing aids or motorized wheelchairs — and probably even motorized wheelchairs equipped with hearing aids.
Yet the ads for the so-called miracle drugs really take the cake, if cakes are awarded for such things.
Of course, we’ve all been exposed to those commercials for mail-oriented products which warn of the need to consult a physician if a certain condition persists for four hours or longer. Since this is a family publication, I won’t be exploring that subject.
My interest today is strictly in those less-glamorous medications.
One day recently, I saw an ad for a drug that starts with a “Z” which professes to remedy cold or allergy symptoms such as sneezing, itching, watery eyes or runny noses. While no one would greet such conditions with open arms, the alarming thing was found in the usual fine-print disclaimer at the end about all the possible side effects this particular medication can cause.
They include, among others, a fast, pounding or uneven heartbeat; dizziness; nausea; problems with vision; and fluctuations in the stock market.
I don’t know about you, but I could live with a runny nose or watery eyes if it meant avoiding ANY of those side effects that are much worse in comparison.
Now imagine if you’re the poor guy who couldn’t win the lottery in a hundred years, but is “lucky” enough to score a trifecta by hitting three of those side effects. He could find himself feeling nauseated and, in an effort to avoid messing up the new carpet, makes a mad dash for the bathroom or outside. Then, being overcome by both dizziness and loss of vision, our poor patient would either trip and break his leg on the way or run into a wall or tree.
This undoubtedly would force him to take pain medication and probably become addicted to that.
Then there was another drug advertised, also beginning with a “Z,” which purportedly alleviates such issues as heartburn.
But, you guessed it, the list of potential side effects is even longer than the list of what this drug supposedly cures. They include, but are not limited to, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, headache, insomnia, muscle pain, nausea and vomiting. I have it on good authority that this substance also causes dropped cell-phone calls.
And as if those weren’t bad enough, more “serious” side effects that can result also were listed, including chest pain, shortness of breath, blistering or peeling of the skin and a fast or slow heart rate.
That case of heartburn doesn’t seem so bad in retrospect, now does it?
Since I don’t want to look like I’m picking on “Z’s,” I additionally encountered a promotion for a drug starting with the first letter of the alphabet, “A,” used to treat depression and related disorders.
It offers some really scary side effects, such as jerky muscle movements you cannot control, seizures or convulsions, jaundice of the skin or eyes, sudden numbness, urinating less than usual or not at all and thoughts of hurting yourself, which I suppose could include suicide.
Here again, I think most people would rather be depressed than dead altogether.
Apparently, one other symptom of these “miracle” drugs is making people talk super-fast, since the announcers who read off the list of side effects in the commercials usually do so in a manner that would make the Road Runner look like he was standing still.
There are many more drugs I could discuss, but I think the moral of the story is that while some are indispensable — such as antibiotics used for infections — our society has become too dependent on magic pills to cure all our physical and mental ills.
If you listen to doctors who really know what they’re talking about, those not working in cahoots with pharmaceutical companies, they’ll tell you that proper nutrition, exercise and a good night’s sleep can prevent many of the problems we face.
That being said, writing this column has given me a bit of a headache, so I’m going to take a good, old BC powder.
And I hope IT doesn’t cause any serious repercussions — at least none lasting four hours or longer.
Tom Joyce is a staff reporter for The Mount Airy News. He can be reached at 719-1924 or tjoyce@civitasmedia.com.
18 (Columbine school shooting in Littleton, Colorado), killed 12
students and 1 teacher, and wounded 23 others, before killing
themselves. Klebold’s medical records have never been made available
to the public.
Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three
times the average starting dose for adults!) when he shot his
grandfather, his grandfather’s girlfriend and many fellow students at
Red Lake, Minnesota. He then shot himself. 10 dead, 12 wounded.
Cory Baadsgaard, age 16, Wahluke (Washington state) High School, was
on Paxil (which caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a
rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates hostage. He has no
memory of the event.
Chris Fetters, age 13, killed his favorite aunt while taking Prozac.
Christopher Pittman, age 12, murdered both his grandparents while taking Zoloft.
Mathew Miller, age 13, hung himself in his bedroom closet after taking
Zoloft for 6 days.
Kip Kinkel, age 15, (on Prozac and Ritalin) shot his parents while
they slept then went to school and opened fire killing 2 classmates
and injuring 22 shortly after beginning Prozac treatment.
Luke Woodham, age 16 (Prozac) killed his mother and then killed two
students, wounding six others.
A boy in Pocatello, ID (Zoloft) in 1998 had a Zoloft-induced seizure
that caused an armed stand off at his school.
Michael Carneal (Ritalin), age 14, opened fire on students at a high
school prayer meeting in West Paducah, Kentucky. Three teenagers were
killed, five others were wounded..
A young man in Huntsville, Alabama (Ritalin) went psychotic chopping
up his parents with an ax and also killing one sibling and almost
murdering another.
Andrew Golden, age 11, (Ritalin) and Mitchell Johnson, aged 14,
(Ritalin) shot 15 people, killing four students, one teacher, and
wounding 10 others.
TJ Solomon, age 15, (Ritalin) high school student in Conyers, Georgia
opened fire on and wounded six of his class mates.
Rod Mathews, age 14, (Ritalin) beat a classmate to death with a bat.
James Wilson, age 19, (various psychiatric drugs) from Breenwood,
South Carolina, took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school
killing two young girls, and wounding seven other children and two
teachers.
Elizabeth Bush, age 13, (Paxil) was responsible for a school shooting
in Pennsylvania
Jason Hoffman (Effexor and Celexa) – school shooting in El Cajon, California
Jarred Viktor, age 15, (Paxil), after five days on Paxil he stabbed
his grandmother 61 times.
Chris Shanahan, age 15 (Paxil) in Rigby, ID who out of the blue killed a woman.
Jeff Franklin (Prozac and Ritalin), Huntsville, AL, killed his parents
as they came home from work using a sledge hammer, hatchet, butcher
knife and mechanic’s file, then attacked his younger brothers and
sister.
Neal Furrow (Prozac) in LA Jewish school shooting reported to have
been court-ordered to be on Prozac along with several other
medications.
Kevin Rider, age 14, was withdrawing from Prozac when he died from a
gunshot wound to his head. Initially it was ruled a suicide, but two
years later, the investigation into his death was opened as a possible
homicide. The prime suspect, also age 14, had been taking Zoloft and
other SSRI antidepressants.
Alex Kim, age 13, hung himself shortly after his Lexapro prescription
had been doubled.
Diane Routhier was prescribed Welbutrin for gallstone problems. Six
days later, after suffering many adverse effects of the drug, she shot
herself.
Billy Willkomm, an accomplished wrestler and a University of Florida
student, was prescribed Prozac at the age of 17. His family found him
dead of suicide – hanging from a tall ladder at the family’s Gulf
Shore Boulevard home in July 2002.
Kara Jaye Anne Fuller-Otter, age 12, was on Paxil when she hung
herself from a hook in her closet. Kara’s parents said “…. the damn
doctor wouldn’t take her off it and I asked him to when we went in on
the second visit. I told him I thought she was having some sort of
reaction to Paxil…”)
Gareth Christian, Vancouver, age 18, was on Paxil when he committed
suicide in 2002,
(Gareth’s father could not accept his son’s death and killed himself.)
Julie Woodward, age 17, was on Zoloft when she hung herself in her
family’s detached garage.
Matthew Miller was 13 when he saw a psychiatrist because he was having
difficulty at school. The psychiatrist gave him samples of Zoloft.
Seven days later his mother found him dead, hanging by a belt from a
laundry hook in his closet.
Kurt Danysh, age 18, and on Prozac, killed his father with a shotgun.
He is now behind prison bars, and writes letters, trying to warn the
world that SSRI drugs can kill.
Woody ____, age 37, committed suicide while in his 5th week of taking
Zoloft. Shortly before his death his physician suggested doubling the
dose of the drug. He had seen his physician only for insomnia. He had
never been depressed, nor did he have any history of any mental
illness symptoms.
A boy from Houston, age 10, shot and killed his father after his
Prozac dosage was increased.
Hammad Memon, age 15, shot and killed a fellow middle school student.
He had been diagnosed with ADHD and depression and was taking Zoloft
and “other drugs for the conditions.”
Matti Saari, a 22-year-old culinary student, shot and killed 9
students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing
himself. Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine.
Steven Kazmierczak, age 27, shot and killed five people and wounded 21
others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University
auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking
Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had
trace amounts of Xanax in his system.
Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen, age 18, had been taking
antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more
at Jokela High School – then he committed suicide.
Asa Coon from Cleveland, age 14, shot and wounded four before taking
his own life. Court records show Coon was on Trazodone.
Jon Romano, age 16, on medication for depression, fired a shotgun at a
teacher in his
New York high school