Minding The Pharm

In a column at Portfolio.com (1/4), Ed Silverman writes that critics say sales of atypical antipsychotics have been spurred in part by “an epidemic of off-label marketing. And so drugmakers encouraged doctors to prescribe these meds for children before the FDA sanctioned their use for youngsters.” Another side effect “is even more disturbing-unnecessary deaths among elderly patients, who shouldn’t receive these medicines if they suffer from dementia.” Robert Rosenheck, a Yale University professor of psychiatry and epidemiology and director of the Division of Mental Health Services and Outcomes Research, said, “The general public and the patients may not be better off. There’s evidence the drugs aren’t always effective, may be harmful, and can cost a good deal of money, but there’s nothing we can do about it, because we’re committed to the principal that doctors should be able to choose whatever treatments are best for their patients.”