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Over Dose: The Case Against the Drug Companies: Prescription Drugs, Side Effects, and Your Health

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I began working in pharmacy in the late 1960's. I helped dispense drugs at a retail drugstore in my home town and I did the same in the largest hospital in Chicago. I kept it up at another hospital and then started "doing" it on my own when I opened my retail store in 1983. I read the manufacturers' package inserts and I followed the prescriptions as they were ordered - and I noticed that many people had problems with the "recommended" dose. Sometimes they got used to the dose and sometimes it had to be changed. In any event, the recommended dose was not always accurate accurate - it was often dangerously WRONG.

I don't know what I thought about all the problems with prescription drugs. I guess I just presumed the patients were overly sensitive, or just unlucky. I didn't often think too much about it - until I became aware of Dr. Jay Cohen and his "Case Against the Drug Companies." His shocking book is called "OVER DOSE" and it describes in good detail the dangers of relying on the manufacturers' package inserts to prescribe drugs.

This is an "eye opener" book and it angers me. How is it that we have this overriding desire to place the bottom line above decent care for health? There are some great things happening in medicine - all around the world. But I think that all the good can be quickly undone by hanging on to a misguided philosophy that insists that profits trump everything else. Its time for a change and Dr. Cohen is part of the changing process. I promise to do my part for change. One thing is to expose potential problems (like Dr. Cohen has done) and another is to encourage people to think about the issues (that's my goal). Please get a copy of this book. Read it and then think about what it really means. When we reach a critical mass changes will happen. You can bank on it! (pun intended)

Over Dose is a must read for anyone who uses either prescription or over-the-counter medications. Dr. Cohen's clear explanations about adverse effects resulting from the standardized high doses generally prescribed, and what to do about this, could save your life or that of a loved one. And Over Dose might shed light on why you or people you know suffer from certain health problems.

Actually, I found this rigorously researched book quite disturbing. It exposes deeply entrenched and shocking problems related to pharmaceuticals that pervade not only the health care system, but also clinical research. However, it also suggests solutions.

We desperately need a dose of reality -- even if it leaves a bitter aftertaste. Good medicine doesn't always taste sweet.

I say BRAVO to Dr. Cohen for the courage to publish this important work!

This book should be required reading for every practicing physician as well as for everyone who takes medicine. After reading this book, a major regret is that it was not available to me when I was first starting out in practice.It shames me to think how completely brainwashed I was by the drug companies. And I was not alone. All doctors in my acquaintenance seemed to share my misguided reverence for drug company marketing ploys. The essence of Doctor Cohen's message in this book is that we are all different in our reactions to drugs and the one size fits all mentality used for convenience by the drug industry inevitably results in underdosing some and overdosing others, frequently with serious or even lethal side effects. Start low, go slow is the author's message to doctors and I heartily endorse it.

Finally, someone has put into print an accurate and factual picture of what the drug manufacturing industry does to place profits way ahead of patient benefit and safety. Anyone who takes prescription medications should read this book. Maybe it gets a little too technical in spots for people not in the health professions, but there is plenty of excellent information and suggestions to make this a very valuable reference for consumer-oriented patients.
I am a doctoral-level clinical pharmacist, and I found myself in agreement with most all of what Dr. Cohen has written and recommended in this book. This should be required reading for every practicing physician, medical student, pharmacist, and nurse in the country. Medical schools should add this to their curriculum for all of our doctors-to-be to read before they take their pharmacology course and start their clinical training.

This is a book that illuminates a dark and widespread problem in the use of prescription medication: Namely, that many people are harmed by taking a far larger dose of their prescription medication than is necessary to obtain the desired level of benifit. The result of this overdose is an epidemic of side effects that are for the most part preventable.

If you do not think the problem of drug reactions and side effects is a bad problem- think again! As Dr. Cohen writes, every day an estimated 300 people die from bad side effects of medication is given in the hospital alone!

Dr. Cohens book 1) discusses the problem that exists, 2) offers various remedies to the problem, and 3) offers a simple and effective solution that can allow you to work with your Medical Doctor in order to tailor the dose of your medications to your individual needs.

I highly recommend this book!

...I was intrigued by Dr. Cohen's basic premise. The drug industry tries to make drug dosing easy for doctors, but what about the patient? The one size fits all.. dosing is not consumer centric, and in the new age of the informed drug consumer it is about time consumers got their correct dose. Dr. Cohen is... pro-drug treatment for many conditions. He wants to have drug makers offer information and pill sizes for lower dose use. Why should a 250 pound man and 100 pound grandmother get the same starting dose. Yet that is what pharmaceutical companies do in their starting dose recommended. This leads to greater side effects and reduces the use of medicines, says Dr.Cohen. Well-written and easy to understanfd Dr. Cohen raises new opportunities for consumer centric companies interested in making drugs that can be used with less side effects. With poor patient retention and compliance by patients drug companies should be doing what they can to make drug treatment more palatable. Clearly, reducing the over dosing is one way to get greater compliance.

Dr. Cohen?s book has helped me tremendously! When I read it I was just starting a new medication, which I did reluctantly, because I feared the side effects. "Over Dose" tells how we may be prescribed initial doses of drugs that are too high for a particular individual, and increased too quickly. Going slowly can make all the difference in the world, and that?s just what I?ve done, successfully. I know of many people who are frustrated by the process of trying drug after drug in hopes of finding one without the side effects. How much more sensible to start with a dose small enough to avoid all that!

I?m convinced there are thousands of people who won?t even start on a drug that could be beneficial, because of horror stories about side effects. Reading this book and following the suggestions, together with ones doctor, would change this attitude completely.

The book is loaded with useful and important information, and is an excellent reference as well as interesting reading. In my case, I wish it had been available many prescriptions ago!

A valuable theme disclosing inadequate testing by the drug companies and woeful evaluations by the FDA of prescription drugs. The main thesis is well-taken: lower doses of many drugs could minimize side-effects, including death. Actually does not go far enough in exposing all the major drug classes that do not increase lifespan at all!
Also available from Amazon: Prescription for Disaster by Thomas Moore and The Nutritional Cost of Prescription Drugs by Ross Pelton and James LaValle.

The aphorism, the cure is worse than the disease, is an apropos motto for "Over Dose." Drug company policies rake in billions while harming the very patients they are meant to help. Dr. Jay S. Cohen opens more cans of worms than a fisherman could hook in his lifetime. The evidence is horrifically overwhelming - America is being overmedicated.

Dr. Cohen is not anti-medication; he advocates the reasonable usage of these powerful meds. His mantra is "start low, go slow." The well researched (53 pages of references) is adept at uncovering the shortcomings of the pharmaceutical companies and their adverse effects on the public - 46% of Americans take at least one prescription daily. Cohen shows how the drug companies' one-size-fits-all dosage is literally killing people. Nearly 300 people die daily due to a medication reaction. The dire facts keep on coming. The author's case against the drug companies is convincing.

Dr. Cohen's precise writing is somber. But the real sad part of this tragedy is how avoidable it can be. Dr. Cohen is equally effective in offering realistic solutions. He clearly states, "My goal in writing `Over Dose' is to provide you with informed consent about the unacceptable state of medication treatment today...to reduce your risks-and to begin to end the side-effect epidemic." "Over Dose" is a must have; the expose may alter you life for the better and perhaps even save it.

Bohdan Kot

'Over Dose' is quite simply a 'MUST READ'. Dr. Jay Cohen goes into detail how and why so many drugs are harmful and/or overdosed to patients more than ever before. In short, he discusses the moral and societal failings of 'big pharma', the FDA, 'bought and sold' politicians, falsified drug safety trials, and misled Doctors who unknowingly prescribe much higher doses than necessary, often harming or killing unsuspecting patients! The huge power and influence these multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies wield is getting worse and worse, and the major 'conflict of interest' that exists in the FDA is unethical, immoral, and dangerous. Folks, this is criminality at it's highest levels, protected by big corporate power and profit interests. This book is, without a doubt, a milestone necessary read for every American!