Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I
- Part II
- Part III
- 7 From hospitalism to nosocomial infection control
- 8 Adverse effects of drug treatment
- 9 Unnecessary surgery
- 10 The concept of appropriateness in patient care
- 11 Recommendations for limiting iatrogenic harm
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - Adverse effects of drug treatment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I
- Part II
- Part III
- 7 From hospitalism to nosocomial infection control
- 8 Adverse effects of drug treatment
- 9 Unnecessary surgery
- 10 The concept of appropriateness in patient care
- 11 Recommendations for limiting iatrogenic harm
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Sir William Osler said that, ‘a desire to take medicine is, perhaps, the great feature which distinguishes man from other animals’. Unfortunately, no medicinal agent is without potential side-effects. The noxious actions of drugs were well-recognized in early nineteenth-century medicine in the United States and even before; indeed, drugs were often chosen precisely for such effects during the era of counter-irritant/depletion therapy promulgated by Rush and his disciples. Medicinal remedies often included toxic minerals, such as mercury, arsenic, and antimony. Use of patent medicines, popular in the eighteenth century, expanded considerably after the revolutionary war, in part due to extensive advertising. Even as promoters of patent medicine criticized regular practitioners for using mercury-containing purgatives, they also not uncommonly included mercury in their nostrums, as well as substantial amounts of opium and alcohol.
Since the mid-nineteenth century, government legislation and regulation relating to drugs have served to reduce consumer and physician control of drug choices. Until the Drug Import Law of 1848, the majority of medications were imported into the United States. The Federal Food and Drug Act of 1906, and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 to standardize medicinal preparation and availability, with the intent of protecting the consumer. However, prescription drug use since the late- 1920s has increased dramatically.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Medical HarmHistorical, Conceptual and Ethical Dimensions of Iatrogenic Illness, pp. 175 - 193Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
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