In Chapter 7 of Pharmacology for Nursing Care 6th Edition by Richard Lehne, it discusses adverse drug reactions – noxious, unintended and undesired effects of medication. In the New York Times article of March 17, 2008 by Janet Maslin in which she reviews a book written by Melody Peterson entitled “Our Daily Meds” she discusses serious consequences of Americans’ prescription drug dependency and how this dependency is encouraged by the pharmaceutical companies. Ms. Peterson’s book states researched findings such as amount people pay for cars since 1980 has doubled but amount spent on drugs has increased 17 times. She highlights the fact that more elderly take sleeping pills and antidepressants raising their risk of falling so companies have come up with drugs to increase bone strength. Ms. Maslin discusses Detrol, advertised cure for overactive bladder that can cause hallucinations as a side effect. Our text book defines as “nearly unavoidable drug effect” – from running to urinate to having hallucinations – no thanks.
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Forensic Nursing Chronicles 