Prescribing a drug
Discussion
It's a massive context thing - you haven't given any.
There are nearly always exceptions for nearly everything, justifications for what I think Americans call 'off-label' use, a drug company might eg only have evidence to PROVE its safety in under-65s but that doesn't make it a worse idea than doing nothing if the alternative involves suffering or an avoidable death.
Talk to the doctor who prescribed it, you could also talk to the pharmacist, they know stuff about drugs.
There are nearly always exceptions for nearly everything, justifications for what I think Americans call 'off-label' use, a drug company might eg only have evidence to PROVE its safety in under-65s but that doesn't make it a worse idea than doing nothing if the alternative involves suffering or an avoidable death.
Talk to the doctor who prescribed it, you could also talk to the pharmacist, they know stuff about drugs.
9mm said:
Could you give me just two or three examples please?
Metformin is one such exampleETA All the doctor has to do is follow the Bolam Principle and they can prescribe against NICE guidelines without fear of major repercussions. If they can show sound reasoning, I'd say they'd have a case even if they weren't following a fairly common practice.
Edited by oldbanger on Wednesday 10th October 23:00
oldbanger said:
9mm said:
Could you give me just two or three examples please?
metformin is one such exampleWikipedia article on off-label use here. That's the phrase you want to Google for to find more info, too.
9mm said:
Could you give me just two or three examples please?
See the article linked below on Wikipedia. That's not exhaustive, pain medication and psychiatric drugs in particular are often used off licence. Really does depend though, the drug may be being prescribed in error, best thing to do is ask. Gassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff