A recent thread brought up the plight of a doper who had been prescribed two different medications by a doctor and started experiencing debilitating side effects.
I, too, was once the victim of prescribing by a doctor who mistakenly gave me two medications that had extremely debilitating results for me.
My paniced reaction to the situation was to advise the other doper to not trust doctors and get a PDR. My post was made in haste, and was not well-thought-out; consequently it may have presented a course of action other than I intended, and certainly not in the best interest of anyone concerned.
Since that thread has subsequently been closed I want to use this venue to clarify my meaning and clear up any misconceptions I may have engendered.
Doctors are human, and they can, and do, make mistakes. However, they have training that the average doper lacks, and a layman using the Physician’s Desk Reference as a primary source of information is wrong.
If one is having trouble that is suspected to be from prescribed medications or from an interactions between medications, first, and immediately, the prescribing physician should be alerted.
However, if the initial physician is not providing satisfactory answers, it is within your right to get a second opinion from another physician, and it is within your rights to do your own research on medication interactions in the PDR and bring it to the attention of your primary and/or secondary physician for consideration.
I did not mean that the PDR should be used for self-determining appropriate medications. Never, under any circumstances (unless you are a qualified physician with prescriptive authority) stop taking a prescribed medication or start taking another medication without express instructions from a physician.
I hope this clears up what was an unfortunate misstatement by me in that thread.
Apologetically,
SnakeSpirit