The Feds maintain a database which includes every prescription for antidepressant medication I’ve ever had filled (or yours too, for that matter)? Well, that appears to be the only inference I can reasonably draw after coming across this report by ABC regarding the Virginia Tech Killer. Read this paragraph from page 2 of ABC’s story on the killer, and tell me I’m just being paranoid:
Some news accounts have suggested that Cho had a history of antidepressant use, but senior federal officials tell ABC News that they can find no record of such medication in the government’s files. This does not completely rule out prescription drug use, including samples from a physician, drugs obtained through illegal Internet sources, or a gap in the federal database, but the sources say theirs is a reasonably complete search.
Nice to learn that the someone in the federal government with access to this database could leak information regarding the prescription medications of any US resident, or threaten to do so, in order to discredit or silence its critics. Not that Rove Bush would ever think of doing such a thing.
Perish the thought.
This is not new. The main purpose of the database is to track the prescriptions of things like oxycodone and other drugs with high abuse potential in order to track down crooked doctors. It falls under federal jurisdiction because drug scheduling happens at the federal level.
So pick your poison. We probably do want government oversight of the medical industry, but there is obviously potential for abuse, as with practically all government records.
The real problem here is that there is a stigma attached to psychiatric medication. Personally, I try to chip away at that by being upfront about my use of Celexa to treat my chronic depression. Make no mistake, it saved my life. I just wish my social conditioning hadn’t made me so resistant to the idea in the first place: maybe I would have gotten help in time to save my marriage.
I understand the need to track controlled drugs like narcotics, but all medications? That seems extreme to me. They don’t keep a centralized database on gun owners, and “Brady checks” of people seeking to purchase are destroyed after 24 hours in most cases. The disconnect is surreal.
The real problem here is that there is a stigma attached to psychiatric medication.
I agree with Steven that there is a real issue of privacy, but I also agree with your statement.
It is horrendous anyone should be made to feel shame because of any medication they are taking.
Don’t worry about shame. You can lose your job, or not get hired in the first place.
Yeah, I see your point.
Many years ago when my mother died I worked hard to pull myself through the grief and depression. But when my sister died several months after my mother, it really pushed me to and over the edge. I went on anti-depressants for a few months and they helped to keep my life from totally blowing apart.
I am still grateful for the assistance that they provided and I feel that taking them was the mature and right thing to do at the time.
What I am not grateful for is that this ‘one-time’ use of an anti-depressant that allowed me to get through a very rough time in my life has been used against me to insinuate some sort of weakness or instability in my personality. Years later.
WTF? Why our society, or those in authority, continue to use such incidents against people defies logic.
Drugs are regulated by the FDA. As soon as you submit your ‘scripts to the pharmacy they are entered into a computer. A phone call to Gen. Hayden and/or one of those FBI warrants that never sees a judge later. They’ve got us by the short hairs, bro.
The world changed completely as soon as all data was broken down to “1’s” band”0’s.”
AF
And for HIV patients too.
It covers and tracks everything.
for example there is a recently released diabetes drug named Januvia which for some patients is a miracle.
For others, not so much.
I understand that data is kept on recently released medications to track dosing trends. Not that that means anything to the Bushists. But if you try a new drug and it works well for a month and then needs adjusting to higher and higher doses, then something might be amiss with the product,no? But can we trust the Bushists to note this? Not likely, thinl of the profits that might be lost.
And now for users of the most common and effective non-prescription decongestant, pseudophedrine, too.
Allergy and cold sufferers must record their names and addresses in a special book kept at the pharmacist’s counter, every time they purchase it.
(Yes, I’ve heard about the meth epidemic, but really, is forcing allergy and cold sufferers to register for relief really the answer to the problem?)