Posted by Alan on January 24, 2003, at 14:28:05
In reply to The Neurontin Scandal, posted by judy1 on January 23, 2003, at 17:38:54
National Public Radio Reportage on Neurontin:
http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_920362.html
It turns out there are a number of stories on the illegal mis-marketing of Neurontin at this page, both print and audio.
I think it's important to understand the ramifications of the mis-marketing of Neurontin. Many, many millions were spent to get out the news that it works magically for all these unapproved conditions (for which it doesn't work in reality). But who is going to spend comparable amounts to reverse that message now that it has been show to be illegal and usually false?
These stories also give you some insight into how pharmaceutical research works here in the US, where many of the articles published in medical journals are not written by the doctors whose names appear on them. Instead they're written by professional advertising writers and doctors are paid to put their name at the top.
There's no evidence Neurontin is systematically effective against anxiety. Of course there's always SOMEBODY who'll get a beneficial response from anything, including pickled herring. But the makers of Neurontin have faced FDA sanctions here in the United States, plus massive civil lawsuits, because they pushed Neurontin for ALL kinds of conditions for which there is either no evidence it's effective or for which there IS evidence that it's NOT effective.
Maybe one's doctor is unaware of these developments, or maybe he has had one or two of those patients with an exceptional response. Or maybe one's anxiety or panic is biologically related to seizures. There's good evidence for a connection like that, though it still doesn't prove Neurontin would help the anxiety.
I post this because I was on the receiving end of this kind of thing and as aresult, my anxiety went untreated in the mean time...the "side effects" of that untreated anxiety being much worse than the side effects of those medications that were actually theraputic such as, in my case, benzodiazepines.
poster:Alan
thread:136541
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030119/msgs/137358.html