Thursday, November 15, 2007

Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease

Consumer reports is running a great series debunking drug advertisements and they have taken on the drug Requip for my favorite disease Restless Leg Syndrome or RLS (The Jimmy Legs). Though Consumer reports does point out that while the commercials do tell the truth, they sometimes leave out some important facts. Such as:


  • 73% experienced relief from their RLS when taking Requip, but 53% also experienced relief from a placebo.
  • the drug can make you sleepy and the other side effects, nausea, for instance, sound worse than the restless legs. I pointed this out earlier.
  • The drug is based drugs used to treat Parkinson's disease and is powerful stuff.
Maybe you just want to suffer with the restless legs. Please be more sensitive to my commenter than I was, anonymous said that RLS is a real disease, and then suspiciously pointed me to www.rls.org.

The video critiquing the commercial is at the Consumer reports website.

(via BoingBoing)

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