Death By Prescription: The Shocking Truth Behind an Overmedicated Nation [Paperback]

Ray D. Strand M.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2006

Experienced family doctor Ray Strand writes his patients prescriptions every week, but he also believes that prescribing drugs should be a last resort in most medical cases-not a first choice. In Death by Prescription he provides simple guidelines to help readers protect themselves and their families from suffering adverse reactions to prescription medication.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (October 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785288287
• ISBN-13: 978-0785288282
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Balanced Examination of Drug Use, November 12, 2003

By 

Barbara N Kuehner (Captain Cook, HI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death by Prescription: The Shocking Truth Behind an Overmedicated Nation (Hardcover)

This is an important book for anyone who takes prescription drugs, nonprescription drugs or herbals. The first part examines the relationship between drug companies and the FDA, which has changed significantly since the early 1990's. Much of the funding for new drug review now comes from the drug manufacturers. The approval process is faster and testing time shorter. The author details how the public increasingly plays a role in "testing" in the form of "post-marketing surveillance" and that the adverse drug reactions encountered are under reported. Marketing includes massive distribution of "free sample" to physicians, many of whom may not be familiar with precautions -- and hence do not alert patients to warning signs and symptoms. Also, advertising of prescription medications has increased greatly in the last few years, which has greatly increased drug use and pressure on physicians to prescribe medications.
Other sections of the books discuss similar concerns with nonprescription medications (many of which recently required prescriptions) and with herbal medications.
The book is "spiced" with case histories that are real page turners. The author has done a real service to the public by describing the scope of the adverse drug reaction problem (#3 killer), and by describing several of the reasons why this has become such an overwhelming concern.
This review is written from the perspective of someone who has been in nursing for over 20 years and who has seen lots of people on lots of medications. The author, a physician, is not suggesting that people stop taking medications that may be important to their health. But he provides guidelines and tools to help individuals evaluate what they need, including the use of a pharmacist and internet resources.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pharmaceutical companies hijacked medical knowledge, April 27, 2006

By 

Michael Davis "www.byvation.com" (Arlington, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death by Prescription: The Shocking Truth Behind an Overmedicated Nation (Hardcover)

Billions of pills are swallowed every year in the U.S., and billions more are consumed worldwide. Yet, pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and physicians downplay the risk. Many consumers, oblivious to the real danger, risk their lives each and every day by taking 2, 3, 4, or more drugs with potentially deadly consequences.

If you're taking prescription drugs - you need to read this book. If you want a primer on the inner workings of the pharmaceutical marketing machine - this book is for you.

The author's compare and contrast the role of the FDA before the 1990's and the 1990's & beyond. Before the 90's the FDA / Pharmaceutical industry relationship was adversarial, with drug safety dictating long, tedious clinical testing. In 1992, the world changed with the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA). Then in 1997, the Food & Drug Modernization Act (FDAMA) really blasted open the doors for the pharmaceutical industry. FDAMA allowed actively promoting off-label drug use and fast-tracking of trials.

Death by Prescription also breaks down the inner workings of the pharmaceutical marketing machine, whereby medical knowledge was hijacked by the pharmaceutical (and medical device) manufacturers. Statistics are skewed by blinding people through relative risk as opposed to the real picture shown by absolute risk.

Death by Prescription is an absolute page turner, peppered with case histories and heart-retching stories that blow apart the industry's efforts to conceal the real dangers posed by drugs.

Opportunity is in the air. Pharmaceuticals are facing huge uphill battles as they confront dwindling drug pipelines, devastating lawsuits, and are struggling to cope with the dawn of genetic medicine which will destroy mass-markets.

---------------------
Michael Davis - Editor, Byvation

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very informative, September 15, 2005

By 

Patricia E. Hynes "A Stephen King fan!" (Portsmouth, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death by Prescription: The Shocking Truth Behind an Overmedicated Nation (Hardcover)

This book was recommended to me by a nurse. I was having terrible side effects to cholesterol medication, and my doctor kept urging me to stay on it, despite the side effects. This book informed me that these side effects were nothing to mess with, and could cause serious harm to my liver and kidneys. I just hope I didn't find out too late. I use people to use this, when a doctor gives you a new drug, or one that doesn't agree with you. I really believe if I hadn't stopped the zocor when I did, I'd be dead.