How do you feel about prescription medication?????

Besides life saving medications, how do you feel about the slew of medications on the market?

Do you think doctors are over-prescribing?

How do you feel about the side effects and animal testing?

I'm in two prescriptions right now and I'm wondering If I should continue taking them for my acne.
Spironolactone 50mg (known to cause tumors in laboratory animals)
minocin 25mg

Why would my doctor prescribe such an intense drug for non-life threatening acne.
I asked her and she said they were fine.

I'm a vegan, actually... But thanks for relaxing me about the scrip fears.

Also just because the medication I'm taking was tested ten years ago doesn't mean the same company isn't testing new drugs on BEAGLES every single day.
Google Huntingdon Life Sciences, for one.
That's bristol meyers squibb, pfizer, et al.

Thanks Though! I agree with you somewhat!

You seem to be in good hands with your dermatologist. Besides Minocin which is also used for rheumatic diseases (at a concentration of 100 mg, twice a day), I have used Accutane, a derivative of Vitamin A, extremely effective (but could promote suicidal thoughts: don't worry too much, I survived, but you are warned!). Accutane is extremely effective.

I don't think doctors over-prescribe. But some patients demand medications when they could do without. If this is your case, don't ask your doctor to treat you for acne (and live with the scars on your face!).

As for animal testing, most of it was done 15-20-30 years ago and the medications have since been used by millions of people, worldwide, year after year. The animals are long dead. Do you think it would have been better to kill the animals for their meat or their skin? Or let them starve?

I share your concerns for animal treatment, but humans are cruel and selfish, for lack of better words. The only way you can help is by becoming a vegetarian who is environmentally concious. Then, your hands would not be stained with blood. Otherwise, you are just another hypocrit who enjoys the benefits of modern life, modern medications, but doesn't want to face the dark side of progress. Sorry.

i currently see 3 doctors: my primary care physician, my psychologist, and my neurologist, and receive prescriptions from all 3. having bipolar 2 (topamax 100mg 2ce daily, and adderall xr to keep me from being doped up from the "dopamax"), social anxiety (xanax as needed), a bulging disc at L5 (right now, darvocet as needed, but it doesn't work, and flexeril as needed, but that's a joke as well), chronic tension headaches, meaning they occur *daily* and rarely go away completely, (just got a script today for fiorinal to prevent the headaches; haven't gotten it filled yet, so not sure how it works. plus neurologist prescribed valium just in case the headaches hit anyway; he said it would calm the muscle tension), frequent migraine headaches (just got maxalt-mlt, some kind of "melt under your tongue" migraine stopper drug which i haven't used yet either), and being on good terms with all 3 doctors (meaning i am not afraid to question them about new medications or side effects i'm experiencing from current meds), i do not think *intelligent* non-drug seeking people are over-medicated. i DO think most younger american mothers over medicate their children, who are falsely diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, and this "ODD" crap. "ODD" is an excuse to let your kid run amok and act like an idiot, beat on it's siblings, and get away with murder with no consequences. look it up. the psychiatric community encourages parents to "look the other way" when these *supposedly* "ODD" children act out. i'm a southern girl, raised the christian southern way ("spare the rod, spoil the child"), though i was only spanked once in my entire life, i had the FEAR of my mother. all she had to do was give me the "eye". kids today have no fear, and that's the problem. parents need to PARENT and stop taking kids to psychologists for easy fixes. over-medicating your children isn't solving the problem.

Spironolactone is one of the mildest diuretics out there. It is also a very old drug, initial approval was in the 1970s. Minocycline is a commonly used antibiotic for acne.
I wouldn't consider any of those drugs to be intense. No one has ever died from those medications.
Every drug has side effects. Many receptors and sites of action are located all over the body.
You need to test on animals; it's a necessary event. Most potential medications do not make it out of lab testing.
Even when they test it on humans, you can only determine side effects which appear up to a 1 in 1000 incidence. The side effect list comes from human testing.

With what I'm learning about the pharmaceutical industry, I'm not taking any thing. I take cod liver oil, and, after 1.5 years, noticed my energy level was higher. I always feel like running now, even though I'm old. At least, I think of myself as old. What's that Spironolactone stuff? Just keep washing your face. Why a drug for acne?