Image courtesy The Sydney Morning Herald.

by Amy Corderoy
The Sydney Morning Herald

Excerpts:

Many of our most commonly used drugs, from painkillers to antidepressants, are dangerous and are killing us off in large numbers, says a  leading researcher.

Peter Gotzsche, a co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, the world’s foremost body in assessing medical evidence, … estimates that 100,000 people in the United States alone die each year from the side-effects of correctly used drugs.

“It’s remarkable that nobody raises an eyebrow when we kill so many of our own citizens with drugs,” Professor Gotzsche, who heads the Nordic Cochrane Centre, told Fairfax Media ahead of his visit (to Australia).

Two of Professor Gotzsche’s biggest targets are antidepressants and the painkillers described as “non-steroidal anti-inflammatories”, such as ibuprofen, diclofenac and celecoxib. Another, sold under the brand name Vioxx, was withdrawn after it emerged it had caused up to 140,000 cases of serious heart disease in the US alone in the five years it was on the market – during which time its manufacturer, Merck was withholding information about its risks. About half the cases were thought to be fatal.

Professor Gotzsche says those deaths are only the tip of the iceberg and are representative of a system of drug regulation that simply does not protect patients.

Read the full story at The Sydney Morning Herald