Be Careful When Considering Newer Drugs

ABSTRACT:
Newer drugs are not always better, safer and are definitely not cheaper. Plus, they don’t have the track record for side effects that older drugs have. Is it safe to take a newer medication on the market?

Since September of 2011, I have been on anticoagulants, a type of drug more commonly known as ‘blood thinners’. Blood thinners is a bit of a misnomer, since the drug I take, warfarin (Coumadin) does not actually thin the blood, but rather, it changes it to make it harder for the blood to clot. There are some downsides to warfarin treatment, though, such as having to have regular blood tests to check levels and not being able to eat certain foods when taking the drug.

So along comes a new drug, Pradaxa, that claims to be better than warfarin at preventing stroke and a few other similar uses as an anticoagulant. Pradaxa also claims to be better because it doesn’t require regular blood tests and has no dietary restrictions like warfarin has.

When I asked my nurse practitioner at the anti-coagulation clinic about Pradaxa, she seemed hesitant to say anything at first, but then remarked, “The problem with this new drug is that, if you start bleeding out or there’s too much of an anti-coagulation effect with the drug, there’s nothing we can do to stop the bleeding. With warfarin, we can administer vitamin K and quickly stop the bleeding. We can’t do that with this new drug.”

When weighing the options, knowing I’ve fallen four times in the past year severely enough to leave bruises, I opted not to consider this newer drug at this time and to stick with the tried and tested warfarin. Should a fall cause me to bleed internally, I’d like to know the doctors have a way to stop that and save my life.

But this isn’t the only new drug that has been pushed through advertising and marketed to the public before all the risks are explained. Sure, there’s the warnings and the contraindications that go on the label, but most consumers either gloss over those or don’t bother reading them at all. Even many doctors aren’t fully aware of the prescribing information and concerns with some drugs.

In 2007, I was administered a drug that was relatively new back then called Zyvox. This was a potent and powerful antibiotic. I was given this drug because of a sepsis, or septicemia, which is an infection in the bloodstream of the body. It can be very seriously, even deadly, and this new drug was stronger with supposedly fewer side effects than the old standby, vancomycin.

To this day, I still believe some my current health problems, such as chronic pain, inflammation, and overactive immune response, might be directly related to having taken this medication. I took vancomycin, a long-used and tested drug, in November of this year, and had absolutely no side effects whatsoever.

Another drug, Levaquin, left me unable to move or function for several days and with a diminished capacity for several weeks. My doctor documented the side effects of this medication, prescribed to me by the hospital, and said it was the wrong medication for my infection anyway, but also that this drug is known to cause tendon damage and muscle inflammation, sometimes permanent.

And it’s not just drugs. Just consider the problems that have come up with vaccinations that are new on the market comparatively, such as the Gardisil vaccine that has been in the news recently because of the detrimental health effects on some young girls.

What it boils down to with these newer medications is that the older alternatives are at least known and have been documented for years what the side effects and benefits of them are. The drug companies now can advertise directly to the consumer, and there are many of these newer drugs that sound fantastic compared to some of the complications with the older ones. But the safest bet is to always consult with your doctor and read everything you can about any drug before you decide if it’s right for you to take.

My personal approach is that I will not take a drug that is new on the market unless there is no alternative and I need the medication to save my life. Considering that many of the newer drugs are not covered by insurance when there are cheaper and more well-known drugs on the market, and that the older drugs that have generic version are usually much cheaper when without insurance, it just makes sense to use the drug that has a longer track record and cheaper price.

It’s important to take an active role in advocating for your own health with your doctor or healthcare professional. Many of these newer drugs might just be the best thing to happen to healthcare or to a particular condition, but if they are, they will still be there a few years down the road, after some time to show side effects in the general population. Learn to read and understand the dosage and prescribing information on all your medications and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Your health, your life, is worth the time and effort to learn all you can about any medication you choose to put into your body.