Prescription drug dosage - Shorts

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Dec, 2003  by Jule Klotter

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A 2002 Georgetown University study reported that over 20% of pharmaceutical drug labels undergo revision after they enter the marketplace. In 80% of the revisions, the original dosage was reduced, or new contraindications or restrictions for specific groups of patients were added. Because the Georgetown study did not include pain relievers and other drugs often used at lower-than-recommended doses or drugs with low-dose variants (e.g., birth control pills), their estimate of how many drugs required dosage revisions is considered low.

A New York Times article by Abigail Zuger, says, "These findings ... along with similar data from Europe, support longstanding concerns among some experts that drugs are being studied at excessively high doses to emphasize their effects, and then marketed at the same high doses to maximize profits." Unfortunately, these recommended doses may be a contributing factor to the high rate of adverse drug effects. Dr. Carl C. Peck, author of the Georgetown study, recommends that doctors 'start low and go slow' (unless an emergency exists) and carefully monitor the response when starting a patient on a new medication. His study was published in the medical journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety and on its web site in August 2002.

Zuger, Abigail. Caution: That Dose May Be Too High. New York Times 17 September 2002

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