Posted by SLS on March 16, 2003, at 19:46:04
In reply to News - Serzone Under Fire , posted by jrbecker on March 16, 2003, at 18:50:33
Hi.
Serzone has already been withdrawn voluntarily from the entire European market.
It is easy to shake a finger at a drug for the liabilities it has. Very few drugs are without side effects or risks. I'm not advocating the continuance of the sale of nefazodone, but I wonder how many of these activists suffer from a life-altering depression for which it is the only effective treatment. What about the people for whom it is the only effective antidepressant that does not inflict ruiness sexual side effects? Is this sufficient reason to keep it available?
It is easy to bash a drug without perspective. How does 18 Serzone deaths worldwide compare to the thousands of cases of irreversible tardive dyskinesia caused by neuroleptic antipsychotics? How many cases of hepatic failure occur in a similar sized cross section of the general population? How many people have died from the cardiac complications of tricyclics? How do the deaths from pneumonia as the iatrogenic consequence of cancer chemotherapy compare in acceptability? Is it acceptable to have in the pharmacopeia an antidepressant that produces EPS at rates comparable to antipsychotics (amoxapine)? Was the rate of hemolytic anemia high enough for nomifensine to warrant its withdrawal from the sizeable number of people for whom it was the only antidepressant to ever work?
Maybe we can simply monitor liver enzymes on a regular basis as is now necessary for Tegretol and Depakote. I'm pretty sure that agranulocytosis occurs with Tegretol at a rate far greater than that seen with Serzone hepatotoxicity.
Should nefazodone be withdrawn? Personally, I don't have enough information to have developed what I deem to be an appropriate perspective. I wonder if the Nader people have.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:209774
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030314/msgs/209782.html