Whom are we to believe...Our pain or the FDA

The recent spate of news about the harmful side effects of cox-2 inhibitors (vioxx, celebrex) and even aleve, an over the counter pain medication leaves all consumers wondering about whether there is any safety in drug information.

For patients who trust their physicians and believe that the FDA is truly responsible for drug review and management are left feeling that noone really knows what the heck they are doing.

At least one truth of this matter is that regardless of efforts to determine long time side effects of medications, only time can help resolve how a particular drug may respond over time. Yet, as consumers, we want to have effective medication out in the marketplace as soon as possible, so did the early results of these studies indicate that they were safe enough to be placed on the market. Appearently they did!.

So where does that leave consumers who now look at studies stating that these medications are now responsible for coronary complications even leading to death. Well, for better or worse, the FDA pulled the drug, correctly determining that the potential benefit of the medication was significantly deminished with the potential side effects.

Now, my wife took vioxx and has even "horded" her vioxx following its removal from the marketplace. She is a dancer and looks to vioxx to keep the arthritis in her big toe down to a managable level while she is dancing. Much like Elaine Bennis's (Seinfeld) determination of a "sponge worthy" date, she decides whether or not to use her limited supply of Vioxx for the diminishment of her arthritis pain. For her, the potential benefits of the medication exceeds the risk of any major side effects of the medication.

While we all want the FDA to monitor medications for us, we also want to be relieved of our pain, discomfort, and worry about aches, pains and even more complicated conditions for which we hope we can get relief for our medical symptoms.

What is the role of the patient and consumer in determining whether or not we can make the decision about the side effects of drugs. Certainly with these cox-2 inhibitors we would probably all agree that they should be off the market, but what is the next drug that we don't yet know about waiting to be pulled due to long term side effects. For example, my physician wants me to be conservative about cholesterol lowering drugs while a physician friend of mine tells me to be aggressive about taking Lipitor. I've not even started my own investigation of the risk/reward of this drug and I'm not even certain that I could calculate that ratio to a point that I would decide whether or not to pursue either option.

But in my next post, I'll alert you to my research and how a consumer can begin to make those kinds of decisions