Balanced Rebellion Going Viral

[Aargh]

But any pysician can prescribe epi prn, you can also obtain a syringe. Lean how to draw the epinepherine and how to shoot it in your thigh.

That brings out another issue that I learned during my cancer treatments. Doctors seem to get their information from pharmaceutcial salesmen and pharmaceutical literature.

Patients want the thing they've heard about, so doctors are happy to prescribe EpiPens. Their patients are happy, there are no more questions from the patient.

The patient doesn't know to ask for something different. The doctor has been told over and over what a great solution the EpiPen is for their patients. Nobody is telling the doctor about the advantages of their patients using an equally effective, but less costly, solution. There's no reason for the doctor to bring the subject up. The patient doesn't know it's available.

My doctors were rock solid on whatever the pharmaceuticals had told them. 1 of my 4 actually cared about what was going on with me. The others just looked up what prescriptions they should be giving me and gave me the scrips. They put more credibility on the information they got from that source than from actually following patients to see what was going on with them.

I refused to take about half a dozen prescriptions I was given because I found out they were highly (and sometimes incredibly highly) addictive. The doctors wouldn't tell me about that. All the labeling has to say to alert a user to a highly addictive drug is "Consult a physician before discontinuing this drug". That's it. It sounds harmless. Schedule an appointment with your doctor to let him know you're stopping. That's not what it means.

[MoValley John]

That brings out another issue that I learned during my cancer treatments. Doctors seem to get their information from pharmaceutcial salesmen and pharmaceutical literature.

Patients want the thing they've heard about, so doctors are happy to prescribe EpiPens. Their patients are happy, there are no more questions from the patient.

The patient doesn't know to ask for something different. The doctor has been told over and over what a great solution the EpiPen is for their patients. Nobody is telling the doctor about the advantages of their patients using an equally effective, but less costly, solution. There's no reason for the doctor to bring the subject up. The patient doesn't know it's available.

My doctors were rock solid on whatever the pharmaceuticals had told them. 1 of my 4 actually cared about what was going on with me. The others just looked up what prescriptions they should be giving me and gave me the scrips. They put more credibility on the information they got from that source than from actually following patients to see what was going on with them.

I refused to take about half a dozen prescriptions I was given because I found out they were highly (and sometimes incredibly highly) addictive. The doctors wouldn't tell me about that All the labeling has to say to alert a user to a highly addictive drug is "Consult a physician before discontinuing this drug". That's it. It sounds harmless. Schedule an appointment with your doctor to let him know you're stopping. That's not what it means.

If that's the best care you received, I'm sorry, you had piss poor oncologists. My sister's oncologists were rock solid, gave several options, talked her through everything, including meds and sideveffects, and after everything else failed, got her in two experemental programs. The first program failed, the second was supposed to fail as well. She miraculously survived. She had a very aggressive form of lukemia, and is two years cancer free. She has mild graft vs. host, but that is a trade off for the possibility of seeing her kids grow up.

I think I'm very fortunate because my wife works at Nebraska Medicine, is involved with several of the best doctors that has translated to incredible healthcare, options and physicians willing to try different things. That is how we got my sister set up with the doctors she had. Not everyone shares that advantage, I need to keep that in mind, but at the same time, we are talking epinepherine, they were doling that out long before the epipen was invented, docs should know how to prescribe it prn.

[wufan]

That brings out another issue that I learned during my cancer treatments. Doctors seem to get their information from pharmaceutcial salesmen and pharmaceutical literature.

Patients want the thing they've heard about, so doctors are happy to prescribe EpiPens. Their patients are happy, there are no more questions from the patient.

The patient doesn't know to ask for something different. The doctor has been told over and over what a great solution the EpiPen is for their patients. Nobody is telling the doctor about the advantages of their patients using an equally effective, but less costly, solution. There's no reason for the doctor to bring the subject up. The patient doesn't know it's available.

My doctors were rock solid on whatever the pharmaceuticals had told them. 1 of my 4 actually cared about what was going on with me. The others just looked up what prescriptions they should be giving me and gave me the scrips. They put more credibility on the information they got from that source than from actually following patients to see what was going on with them.

I refused to take about half a dozen prescriptions I was given because I found out they were highly (and sometimes incredibly highly) addictive. The doctors wouldn't tell me about that. All the labeling has to say to alert a user to a highly addictive drug is "Consult a physician before discontinuing this drug". That's it. It sounds harmless. Schedule an appointment with your doctor to let him know you're stopping. That's not what it means.

That's really poor treatment of your doctor can't distinguish between a couple of sales pitches and 10+ years of medical training.

[wufan]

That brings out another issue that I learned during my cancer treatments. Doctors seem to get their information from pharmaceutcial salesmen and pharmaceutical literature.

Patients want the thing they've heard about, so doctors are happy to prescribe EpiPens. Their patients are happy, there are no more questions from the patient.

The patient doesn't know to ask for something different. The doctor has been told over and over what a great solution the EpiPen is for their patients. Nobody is telling the doctor about the advantages of their patients using an equally effective, but less costly, solution. There's no reason for the doctor to bring the subject up. The patient doesn't know it's available.

My doctors were rock solid on whatever the pharmaceuticals had told them. 1 of my 4 actually cared about what was going on with me. The others just looked up what prescriptions they should be giving me and gave me the scrips. They put more credibility on the information they got from that source than from actually following patients to see what was going on with them.

I refused to take about half a dozen prescriptions I was given because I found out they were highly (and sometimes incredibly highly) addictive. The doctors wouldn't tell me about that. All the labeling has to say to alert a user to a highly addictive drug is "Consult a physician before discontinuing this drug". That's it. It sounds harmless. Schedule an appointment with your doctor to let him know you're stopping. That's not what it means.

That's really poor treatment if your doctor can't distinguish between a couple of sales pitches and 10+ years of medical training.

Also, the labeling DOES have to say if it's addictive. The pharmacist might not put it on the label, but it says it on the product insert placed in the bag.

[Aargh]

My oncologist was in a clinic that I referred to as a cattle-herding operation. Get 20 or 30 patients in there and herd them through the chemo rooms as fast as possible. While waiting my turn, I wqs surrounded by amputees with bone cancer, kids with leukemia or something else that left them bald, lots of obviously terminal people.

Maybe that's why they tried prescribing Welbutrin and other anti-depressants. I did fill the prescription for ativan. Take that and you won't care about ANYTHING. Stop taking it and you will care about EVERYTHING.

[wu_shizzle]

In your perfect world, would medication receive any kind of patent-esque protection? I am not sure what I think about this topic, but I am not sure I've really heard people on the right criticize the protection that medication gets. The argument is always that the companies wouldn't innovate if they didn't receive the protection.

My personal opinion is that the epi-pen fiasco wouldn't happen in a pure-capitalist market but it also wouldn't happen under someone like Bernie Sanders. I have no doubt that it will continue to happen under someone like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

I'm all for IP laws and I believe that patent laws on medications generally seem fair.

The EpiPen does not fit the traditional patent argument as it's not the drug that's protected it's the delivery system. Yet the FDA wants still wants to hamstring Mylan's competitors.

I couldn't agree more with your point about Establishment politicians of both parties loving the current system.

[MoValley John]

There are a lot of epipen alternatives out there. Doctors can be lazy and patients may not know to ask for alternatives, but they exist. I am not a big fan of pharma price gouging, I find it immoral. That said, in regard to the epipen, they, along with a little help from the govt, marketed themselves as the only epinephrrine solution. They did a great job, but consimers need to know that these alternatives exist today. One thing that is disturbing to me is the media, when presenting the story of the epipen price increase, hasn't mentioned any alternatives, in fact, they have parroted the myth of epipen having monopoly on self administered epinephrine.

Doctors need to do a better job of researching alternatives, but patients also have a responsibility in being informed participants in their own healthcare.

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