Tag: prescription drugs

Prescription for Disaster: The Hidden Dangers in Your Medicine Cabinet

Written by AbleChild on June 17, 2022. Posted in Essential Books.

Prescription for Disaster: The Hidden Dangers in Your Medicine Cabinet is a book designed to create informed consumers. There is too little known about the long-term safety of many drugs that are prescribed to hundreds of thousands of children, such as Ritalin. Other drugs like Xanax are very addictive, and there are countless side effects for so many other drugs that are prescribed liberally by doctors. Thanks to lack of testing by the FDA and insufficient monitoring of side effects, and the failure of doctors to provide patients with adequate information about the potential risks for the drug they are being prescribed, it’s no wonder that prescription drugs are involved in 100,000 deaths per year, as the book states. And this is just the beginning of the statistics, shocking situational examples and thorough research that is laid out in this revolutionary book.

Consumers and patients have become part of the problem as well by not being informed, and this is why consumer advocate and prizewinning investigative journalist Thomas Moore wrote this eye-opening book. He provides a wealth of important information on side effects and potential dangers associated with common drugs prescribed for all kinds of medical conditions. Prescription for Disaster: The Hidden Dangers in Your Medicine Cabinet also guides the consumer on what many of the different warnings and labels mean that are found on prescription drugs, and what questions you need to be asking your doctor and pharmacist. Moore makes a strong and emotionally appealing case in this book that should be read by all prescription drug consumers.

About the Author

Thomas J. Moore is a award-winning investigative reporter who also spent six years researching and writing about prescription drug safety and dangers as a senior fellow in health policy at the George Washington Medical Center. He is co-author of more than 30 scientific studies focusing on clinical trials, US Food and Drug Administration regulation of therapeutic drugs, adverse event reporting, pharmacovigilance with electronic health records, and the risks of psychoactive therapeutic drugs.

Aside from Prescription for Disaster, Moore has written three other books total around the safety and dangers of prescription drugs. His book Deadly Medicine told the gripping story of the nation’s worst drug disaster that killed tens of thousands of heart patients. His other two books are called Heart Failure and Lifespan: Who Lives Longer and Why. For ten years Moore served as project director for QuarterWatch: An Independent Perspective on Emerging Drug Risks, a drug safety publication of the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices. His consulting and research are conducted under the umbrella of Drug Safety Research, a sole proprietorship with offices in Alexandria, Virginia. Through his research, Moore has worked with lawyers, the national news media, and pharmaceutical fraud prosecutors on a wide variety of projects.

Reviews

Kirkus Reviews:

“The key to improving the system, Moore says, is an informed, concerned, and even demanding public, which this book is designed to create. Vintage Moore—sharp, readable, persuasive.”

Landmark Legislation: Consumer Protection MedWatch Phone Number Placed on Generic Prescription Drug Containers in Connecticut

Written by Able Child on July 15, 2015. Posted in Lawmaking, MedWatch.

For immediate release: July 15, 2015
Contact Sheila Matthews, Cofounder AbleChild (203) 253-0329
Westport, Connecticut

Landmark Legislation: Consumer Protection
MedWatch Phone Number Placed on Generic Prescription Drug Containers in Connecticut

AbleChild is pleased to announce the passage of Connecticut SB 28, a bill that makes it mandatory for all generic prescription drug containers to carry the 1-800 MedWatch telephone number. This is a first-in-the-nation legislative action to provide this important consumer information and a landmark win for consumers in Connecticut. In February of 2015, AbleChild proposed an amendment to SB 28, taking the unique opportunity to propose this very specific protection on behalf of the consumers.

MedWatch is a drug safety reporting system made available to consumers to allow direct reporting of Adverse Drug Events to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Information provided to MedWatch, by consumers, provides a unique tool to the FDA by giving the federal agency the ability to identify adverse reactions and monitor prescription drugs. The information collected about adverse reactions is used to determine if FDA action is needed on a specific drug.

According to the FDA, it receives information on less than 1% of the actual adverse drug reactions (ADRs) from the consumers. Prescription drugs are currently responsible for killing more people annually than illegal drugs, and according to Tom Friden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “It’s a big problem and getting worse.” Furthermore, according to the Medical Journal of Medicine, prescription drugs are responsible for 291 deaths every day.

Representative David Baram of Bloomfield, co-chairman of the General Law Committee, stated that, “The passage of legislation requiring the MedWatch information to be provided with prescription medications is a positive consumer bill. I applaud Sheila Matthews for bringing this to our attention and helping us to pass this great consumer protection legislation. Now consumers will have information on how they can report adverse prescription reactions so the manufacturers can review medication issues, and the FDA can re-evaluation safety concerns. This is a major consumer protection that will help promote the safe use and manufacturing of medicines that many of us rely on to live productive lives.”

Senator Joe Markley, who also supported AbleChild’s efforts from the beginning said, “I’m delighted at the progress AbleChild has made in getting out the word on MedWatch, which will enhance the conversation on prescription drugs. Reactions to these drugs differ dramatically, and it’s important that people who have a bad experience have a place to report what happened. I hope we can do more to let people know about MedWatch, and to make them aware of the problems sometimes associated with certain prescription drugs.”

AbleChild’s amendment received bipartisan support and was unanimously passed on June 1, 2015. AbleChild would like to acknowledge and thank the cosponsors of this important consumer protection legislation, including Senator Joseph J. Crisco, 17^th District, Representative Jonathan Steinberg, 136^th District, Senator Joe Markley, 16th District, and the General Law Committee Chairman, Representative David A. Baram of the 15thDistrict.

AbleChild also would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the entire General Law Committee staff for their assistance in navigating the often, complicated legislative process.