Doctors are slaves to fashion in the same way as everyone else is.When new drugs are introduced, you get a surge of use, then a tailing off, and eventually the new drug becomes established and we all get used to it.
When it comes to new drugs, the Jobbing Doctor is a late adopter. I don't always rush into using the new agent, relying on others to try them with their patients.
Sometimes my therapeutic cautiousness means that my patients don't get the new cheap cialis as soon as they might; it does work both ways as I have rarely had to stop cheap cialis that has been withdrawn.
Take Calcium Channel blockers. They have been around for a long time now (greater than 30 years) and have not been my favourite group of blood pressure tablets. Especially the dihydropyridine group [all those drugs - there are 20 of them - that end in -ipine]. Over the last few years I have seen what seems like hundreds of patients with bad leg swelling (full of fluid), and I have often stopped the medication.
On one of my house calls today I have done it again.
I really feel that we overmedicate the elderly.
No comments:
Post a Comment