joeylittle
Sponsor
This website: http://www.drugs.com/ is very reliable. Although it is geared to a US user (you can read their "about us" section to see how they compile their info) it is, strangely, run by pharmacists in NZ. They do not depend on any corporate sponsorship and glean their revenue through ad placement. They've got tabs for info geared towards patients and providers. When you see something in "overview" that you want more detail on, go to "professionals" and find the detail. Example: if a side effect is listed as having been seen in .1% of adult users, and you want to know what the sample size was, click to the professional tab, find that side effect section, and just keep reading. (in the case above, it equated to 3 out of 2,467 users in a placebo-controlled trial). You can get that kind of info on this site.
The FDA is far from perfect. Not even in the same room as perfect. But, it's the regulatory body in the US. Their site is a bit harder to navigate, but if you want to check for additional warnings or recalls, they are the ones who generate that info, and you can actually go straight to the source: http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/default.htm
On the FDA site, this link is probably the most useful: Index to Drug-Specific Information. It lets you access all the post-market info on a drug in one place. Post-market is where you find the things they learn after the drug has been approved and is being sold. It is worth checking, especially for problems that arise with generics, once they are on the market.
Finally, when you have been prescribed a drug, it comes with literature. Read the literature. When you don't know what something means, look it up. I think people avoid this part because it's in fine print, it's a whole lot of information, and if you know yourself to be an alarmist, you can easily be alarmed. But it doesn't take very long to get used to understanding what the numbers all mean.
And remember, you did hire a doctor to walk you through this stuff. Often, going to your doctor with a specific list of questions will get you much better information.
The FDA is far from perfect. Not even in the same room as perfect. But, it's the regulatory body in the US. Their site is a bit harder to navigate, but if you want to check for additional warnings or recalls, they are the ones who generate that info, and you can actually go straight to the source: http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/default.htm
On the FDA site, this link is probably the most useful: Index to Drug-Specific Information. It lets you access all the post-market info on a drug in one place. Post-market is where you find the things they learn after the drug has been approved and is being sold. It is worth checking, especially for problems that arise with generics, once they are on the market.
Finally, when you have been prescribed a drug, it comes with literature. Read the literature. When you don't know what something means, look it up. I think people avoid this part because it's in fine print, it's a whole lot of information, and if you know yourself to be an alarmist, you can easily be alarmed. But it doesn't take very long to get used to understanding what the numbers all mean.
And remember, you did hire a doctor to walk you through this stuff. Often, going to your doctor with a specific list of questions will get you much better information.
