Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Getrealmd — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:08:15 -0000

Rateadrug.com just added supplements and alternative therapies, so you can compare conventional treatments to alternative or complementary treatments. Hopefully, this will be a big step forward in comparative medicine. We need a way to find out the reality about each form of treatment without depending solely upon doctors, drug companies or supplement promoters.

Check it out: http://rateadrug.com/Supple...

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

legal marijuana — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:21:11 -0000

Somebody should talk to us more about this side effects the prescription drugs have. It happened to me to receive some medicines a few week ago for a flu and then I felt sick for like a whole week because of them.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Addiction Analyst — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:06:12 -0000

This is fantastic. Let the public comment on the efficacy and/or the lack of on the drugs that are being pushed by the pharma companies. Some of the long-term effects of some psychiatric meds are said to cause chemical lobotomies. Some long-term use of these drugs changes organic components to the point that these people cannot recover from their use of these drugs. http://www.drug-rehab-color...

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

catemars — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:46:15 -0000

take a look at the website: gardasil for instance - or lipitor - comments and statistics certainly do not seem to be favoring the manufacturers

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

buy lipitor — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:29:46 -0000

Lipitor (atorvastatin) for High Cholesterol: Reduced my overall cholesterol from 288 to 126 in one month. However, I now seem to have a lot of various pains throughout my body. Feet, back, etc.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

corinne39@msn.com — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:01:32 -0000

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Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

ambien — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:00:07 -0000

Ambien has helped me tremendously over the past couple years. I go to sleep instantly and do not wake up at all during the night. I also feel absolutely great in the morning. No hangover or anything.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Julie T — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:49:42 -0000

I like this site. I filled out a couple of surveys on my regular prescrips and I liked having to think about them. Usually when I go to the doc's office I kind of blank out--he asks how it's going, and I just say, fine, without really thinking about it.. i'm definitely going to look at the ratings every once in a while and think about whether I should talk to my doc about switching. One time before I switched because a friend was on something that was working better, and it did work better for me too (asthma). Maybe what I'm already on is the best for me, but it's good to be proactive about your health.

I know what that one comment meant about clinical trials, but I was in a clinical trial and questionaires were a big part of it as well as blood tests etc. I had a book of forms I had to fill out every single day. It's not done in a vacuum where we're all in cages being fed exactly the same way, and taking drugs in real life isn't that way either. In real life a lot more very different people take the drug than in a trial, as well. Also clinical trials only really ask about things they predict might be an issue.

I think it's silly to think that anyone would use JUST this site to make medical decisions.. I can see using it with your doctor, not instead of your doctor. Like that one poster said, if it can help avoid another Viox, great. It seems like a useful addition to me.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

pwogs — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:51:48 -0000

certainly isnt scientific... i wonder tho if this site would be wise to target communities that would likely be using the drugs... such as go to bipolar web communities to let the members rate the drugs used for them?

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

swag — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:54:24 -0000

Big pharma will need 6-12 months to figure out what's going on first. And another 6-12 months to realize that they cannot own what's being said about them.

Seems like there's at least some possibility of having a product runway with it.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

JC — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:42:49 -0000

This is silly! There are so many factors that go into how a drug works for one person relative to another. For example, dosage and body weight won't always the same for people. Or, what if one person takes it with food and another forgets to mention they don't. Maybe someone takes it with a little wine and gets dizzy but forgets to mention it. Lipitor, for example, can get all out of whack with grapefruit juice. How's that supposed to be accounted for by someone with no medical understanding. Using the wisdom of the crowds for medication, especially for meds for life threatening conditions, is not wise!! That's just plain dumb. A famous health services research study showed that people ranked hospital quality by the newness of the carpets in the waiting rooms. Duh! Like that has anything to do with the healthcare delivered. With pills it's even a worse possibility to mix and match opinions based on the wrong pieces of evidence.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

John — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:56:01 -0000

LOL--but I'm diabetic; unfortunately my hypochondria has a basis in reality!

Maybe they should have a warning label--please don't open this site unless you are a well-balanced individual; curious but not too imaginative...

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Adam Ostrow — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:16:21 -0000

thanks for the real-life insight ... one possible drawback of this site that I'm starting to consider the more I think about is it could really bring out the hypochondriac in all of us as we freak out over every negative comment about a drug.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

John — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:08:03 -0000

I happened to have a doctors' appointment today so I held off on commenting until I'd showed him the site. He blinked and put up all the objections that I thought of and that I'm seeing commenters make, and then he said the doctor equivalent of 'cool.' He wants me to email him the surveys periodically so he can watch how I'm doing on a new med (I'm diabetic). His view is that he doesn't know everything and he's pretty sure that drug companies don't either.

He said that while he wouldn't prescribe by it and he sure wouldn't take it as his only source if he was the patient, he thinks it could be a really good addition to what he wants to ask questions about because it takes far too long for researchers to pick up on stuff. He said he still feels horrible about a patient who died on Vioxx.

I'm going to fill out surveys on all my meds and send them to him. I really like this idea just for me, so that I can really think about what's working for me, but I hope a lot of other people do it too so that I can really get the scoop. I understand what people are saying about big pharma and.or crazies, but if enough people do it you'll still be able to see patterns.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Stephanie DeLuca — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:07:13 -0000

This post is very helpful. People who were prescribed a new medication would want feedback before taking it. Although, since these posts are anonymous, I think that representatives of that prescribed drug will write their own positive feedback about the product so people will buy it.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Evan W. — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:29:59 -0000

Very cool concept. Great write-up.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Rachel Burkot — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:33:26 -0000

This is neat, and really, when you think about it, it makes sense. We want to read feedback and testimonials before we buy clothing or a camera or an appliance online. So why shouldn't we want to read feedback before taking medicine? Sometimes it's hard to trust the small print on the bottle that says Side effects may include... Why not read the side effects that DID come about when a real person used the drug?

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Dean — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:16:05 -0000

Everybody seems so scared of "big pharma"... but what about people making decisions (via a site like this) from mere anecdotal and subjective evidence about side-effects. Now THAT's scary! Personally, I think this site has the potential to do some real-world harm to people... Well designed, controlled studies are far more helpful than anonymous crowdsourced feelings and assumptions! ..and for the conspiracy buffs, no, I have nothing to do with big pharma..

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Chris — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:53:25 -0000

I saw Aleve, a harmless drug, but it has only 5.5 effective score. I think it needs plenty of people to rate to get a good idea, not just one or two people. It will be a good one to scan preliminarily but in the end only personal experience counts.

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Your Name* — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:48:43 -0000

This reminds me of http://haaachoo.com....which lets users "record" information about over-the-counter medicines and home remedies

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Adam Ostrow — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:43:38 -0000

well, anyone can comment, but I assume you might run into some issues in that circumstance ...

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Your Name* — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:25:05 -0000

Also, do the people who mow down 20 or 30 people at their school with a gun get the opportunity to rate the drug that they were prescribed, or is it just the people who are experiencing some success with the drug that will be able to comment??

Re: RateADrug: Get the Real Scoop on Prescription Drugs and their Side Effects

Your Name* — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:21:15 -0000

I'm going to say that this is not workable, due to the fact that Big Pharma will hire an army of people to make it swing their way. Absolutely no doubt in my mind. Especially if really bad ratings start coming in on a drug and sales slow.