How safe are the drugs you're taking? A leading medical researcher shows how Americans are being overmedicated, resulting in millions of avoidableside effects, and explains how consumers can protect their health in the future. In late 1999, a headline in The New York Times read, "Too Much of a Good Thing? Doctor Challenges Drug Manual." The article described Dr. Jay S. Cohen's new report maintaining that the recommended doses in the Physicians' Desk Reference are too high for many people and are causing a host of unnecessary adverse reactions, "ranging from dizziness and nausea all the way to death." Drug reactions in hospitals are among the nation's leading causes of death, killing more than 100,000 Americans every year. What's more, the "side-effect epidemic" causes manypeople-as much as 50 percent of those on blood-pressure medication-to discontinue treatment. The problem, reports Dr.

Cohen in this vital book, stems not only from poor research on the part of the drug companies but also from a deliberate effort to create easy, one-size-fits-all dosages that both appeal to doctors and produce artificially inflated effectiveness statistics. In Over Dose, Dr. Cohen does more than expose drug company misdeeds-he shows consumers exactly how to monitor and control their own drug intake. He offers practical information about the potential dangers and safe uses of the nation's bestselling drugs, including Prozac, Claritin, Viagra, Lipitor, and a wide range of estrogen-replacement, anti-inflammatory, and blood-pressure medications.