PRESCRIPTION FOR DISASTER: THE HIDDEN DANGERS IN YOUR MEDICINE CABINET

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