Product Description

An expose of the risks of commonly prescribed medications discusses the prescription errors doctors often make and shows consumers how to deal with the potentially harmful results.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1188799 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

Amazon.com Review
We've all heard the stories of allergy drugs that caused toxic reactions when taken with other medications, painkillers that caused liver damage in people who also drink a lot of alcohol, or antidepressants that ruin some users' sex lives. In fact, "there is no such thing as a safe drug," asserts Thomas J. Moore, who researched drug safety as a senior fellow in health policy at George Washington University. Moore is something of a drug doomsayer, and many readers of this book will join him in his fears. He asserts that drug companies are not above manipulating information about their products--an especially egregious situation, since doctors get much of their information about drugs from the manufacturers themselves. For instance, he notes that a report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded that the company that manufactures the sleep aid Halcion "vigorously sought to suppress the publication of unfavorable studies and attempted to silence Halcion critics." Moore appears to have done massive research, and he documents his stories of the development and approval of dozens of drugs with extensive footnotes. (It would be interesting to hear a response from the pharmaceutical companies and the FDA.) By focusing on dangers, side effects, and flawed clinical trials, Moore gives short shrift to the real benefits of many medications--but that's not the point here. Instead, he makes a strong case for drug users to be careful consumers and take note of their own individual reactions to medications, rather than leaving it up to their doctors or anyone else. --Ben Kallen

From Library Journal
Moore, a senior fellow in health policy at the George Washington University Medical Center, reports that prescription drugs contribute to 100,000 deaths each year. He also points out that over a lifetime of drug taking, the average American has a 26 percent chance of being hospitalized from a drug injury. Clearly, putting blind faith in prescription drugs can be dangerous, and Moore aims to tell consumers how they can minimize the risks of serious side effects in all therapeutic categories. Though he does provide references to the professional medical literature to substantiate his claims, in this reviewer's opinion he greatly accentuates the negative; obviously, drugs have been invaluable in curing disease and alleviating symptoms. Still, for its timely warning, this book is recommended for all consumer health collections.
-?Bruce Slutsky, New Jersey Inst. of Technology Lib., Newark
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Moore writes superbly and unsensationally about the woes of prescription drugs. Sure, he relays some horror stories of mistaken medication, but he does it not to rabble-rouse but to focus attention on specific problems, such as the use of medicine too strong for the particular complaint or the careless prescribing of contraindicated drugs to the same patient. He carefully manages his material and his tone in order to thrust home his main points: that pharmaceuticals requiring prescription are powerful and incompletely understood by manufacturers and doctors as well as patients; that the barriers to better understanding are endemic to our system of producing, testing, marketing, and using drugs; and that proactive patients can change a situation in which more die yearly from inappropriate prescriptions than from murder, suicide, and all transportation accidents combined--even if they change it only for themselves, one by one. Riveting in its exposition and cogent in its practical advice--if this is muckraking, it is sober, well-balanced, and fair-minded muckraking. Ray Olson

Customer Reviews

Save Your Own Life - Listen To Thomas J Moore, Author
This is a great book about prescription medicines and the people who make billions of dollars pushing these drugs at the public. Thomas J. Moore is qualified to write on this issue. He has spent six years researching and writing about the safety of prescription drugs as a senior fellow in health policy at the George Washington University Medical Center.

This book was written in 1998. However, almost all of the information in the book is still relevent. Most of the problems identified in the book have not been resolved and some are even worse. For a similar book on this subject released in 2004, see my review on "Overdosed America: The Broken Promise Of American Medicine" by John Abramson.

You will learn about many amazing facts in "Prescription For Disaster." I will list some of them for you. Be sure to read the book to learn about all of the issues involved.

1. You are about ten times more likely to be hospitalized by a side affect of a prescription drug than by an automobile accident.
2. Many doctors do not tell patients about the adverse effects of the medicines that they prescribe.
3. Almost half of medicines prescribed caused cancer in animals, often at or near the human dose.
4. Learn about how one extra tablet of a medicine for hives killed the patient.
5. Of the top 50 prescribed drugs, 7 can cause addiction, 18 have cancer risks, 18 are unusually toxic and 25 have cardiac risks.

Anyone over 30 should read this book for self preservation.
Rx for Disaster documents the potential good as well as the side effects & harmful drug interactions of many of the newer legitimate designer pharmaceuticals. If you are interested in improving your understanding and taking control of the Rx medications prescribed for you, this book is a must. It is well written and factual by Thomas J. Moore, an experienced medical researcher. The book provides insight and understanding, as well as a road map for learning about the Rx medication that you are taking. You can better interact with your doctor and pharmacist after you have read this book.

A potentially lifesaving book
Utterly accurate, mild in tone, this book sets out in simple language (backed up by solid citations to peer-reviewed journals) how those of us with some intelligence can minimize the damage from prescription drugs.
From p179: "One wonders how the drug industry could be surprised that the consumer information plan focused 'on the hazards that drugs may present.' This was exactly the information being denied to consumers. Evidence that the real goal of the PhRMA and the AMA was to continue to keep consumers in the dark could be seen..."