Posted by katekite on April 13, 2002, at 21:59:14
In reply to Off label use is NOT the same as experimental » katekite, posted by jane d on April 13, 2002, at 18:35:37
That's absolutely true. And there are many many times that off-label use is great. For example most of the bipolar drugs are off-label and people would be much worse off without them.
My point saying that, which I'm sure I overdid and thus kind of screwed up, was just to say that if one is concerned about what drugs are or aren't being prescribed and if one is a beginner at drug knowledge, then one easy way to know if something is a well-known conservative therapy is if its being used on-label.
And I think it is generally true that doctors feel less threatened about liability if they are using a drug on-label and might respond to comments about it with a mindfullness towards conservatism, which in this case I personally feel would be good.
But I definitely did use the word experimental, and I think I should not have used that word. Since many of these drugs have been used off-label for long enough now to know that its not an experiment any more than an on-label drug is an experiment.
I apologize, as I'm sure many people out there are on off-label drugs and doing extremely well on them, and I in no way meant to criticize that.
Sorry -- kate
poster:katekite
thread:102912
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020408/msgs/102993.html