Powerful medicines
Subtitle: the benefits, risks, and costs of prescription drugs
By: Jerry Avorn.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York
Number of pages: 448
ISBN-13: 9780375414831
Subjects: Pharmaceutical industry -- United States -- Costs.; Drugs -- Prescribing -- United States.; Drugs -- Side effects -- United States.; Prescription pricing -- United States.
Description: "This is a comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at issues that affect everyone: our shortage of data comparing the worth of similar drugs for the same condition; alarming lapses in the detection of lethal side effects; the underuse of life-saving medications; lavish marketing campaigns that influence what doctors prescribe; and the resulting upward spiral of costs that places vital drug beyond the reach of many Americans." "Using clinical case histories taken from his own work as a practitioner, researcher, and advocate, Dr. Avorn demonstrates the impressive power of the well-conceived prescription as well as the debacles that can result when medications are misused. He describes an innovative program that employs the pharmaceutical industry's own marketing techniques to reduce use of some of the most overprescribed and overpriced products. Powerful Medicines offers timely and practical advice on how the nation can improve its drug-approval process, and how patients can work with doctors to make sure their prescriptions are safe, effective, and as affordable as possible."--BOOK JACKET.