Sources of good medical information.

[tpuk]

Hi guys,

Hope your doing well.

I've just been reading the new book ('Bad Pharma') by Ben Goldacre (I really like 'Bad Science' aswell).

Anyways, he primarily writes about how drugs are marketed with incomplete/distorted research & trial data. This has led to independent systematic reviews on drug efficacies that are publicly available.

Although there is not too much information regard gyn, there is some research about estrogen blockers for treating gyn, and I think I spotted some things about prostate drugs/anti-physchotics relating to gyne. Obv you can search for information regarding any other meds you may take, or may need to take in the future.

The first is;

www dot trialsjournal dot com/ (after searching a subject here, you can also search the Biomed Central database for other trials)

Secondly is the Cochrane Website which contains some independent non-profit systemic reviews of trials data;

www dot cochrane dot org/

Have a look around.

Cheers

[Paa_Paw]

There is no such thing as a drug with no side effects.

There are good lists of information out there, but keeping them up to date is a major problem because most of the drugs prescribed today did not exist in their present form 15 years ago. While I was once well informed on the subject of side effects, Most of what I know is now terribly out of date.

It is not enough to look for Gynecomastia as a side effect. Sometimes it will be listed as Tenderness or Swelling of the breasts. Often the side effects are understated in the official literature so it is best to compare several sources.

Any medication that reduces testosterone or its effects should automatically be suspect. Drugs that limit the effects of DHT to prevent of minimize balding should be high on the list of things to avoid. With Prostate drugs however, there is not really much alternative.

It pays to be an informed consumer.

[tpuk]

There is no such thing as a drug with no side effects.

There are good lists of information out there, but keeping them up to date is a major problem because most of the drugs prescribed today did not exist in their present form 15 years ago. While I was once well informed on the subject of side effects, Most of what I know is now terribly out of date.

It is not enough to look for Gynecomastia as a side effect. Sometimes it will be listed as Tenderness or Swelling of the breasts. Often the side effects are understated in the official literature so it is best to compare several sources.

Any medication that reduces testosterone or its effects should automatically be suspect. Drugs that limit the effects of DHT to prevent of minimize balding should be high on the list of things to avoid. With Prostate drugs however, there is not really much alternative.

It pays to be an informed consumer.

Hi Paa_Paw,

Yes all drugs will have side effects. I suppose my post does not directly relate to gyne - although the objective of these sites is to pool all data that has ever been recorded & look at it in an unbiased way (a huge percentage of drug trials are payed for by the companies that want to market them, and are not carried out properly - the data should be available for independent non-profit scrutiny).

I have considered SSRI drugs recently & its good to be able to see if all the collected trial data shows any positive effects vs placebo etc, and also to look at which SSRI performs better than the other SSRIs for specific conditions.

These sites have relatively small amounts of systematic reviews anyways thus far but hopefully in the future there will be more.

I'm very careful with meds, I got prescribed 'Omeprazole' for heartburn last week...... possible side-effect was gynecomastia.

Its very odd to be prescribed this drug after the fuss I made with my doctors.