INDICES> Irrational Drugs

[HINDU PHARMACY <pharmhin@goa1.dot.net.in>]

Irrational drugs
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Dear professionals,

 In many devloping countries, where the Essential Drugs Concept is not being
followed because of the heavy influences of manufacturers, 90 % of the
health professionals may not be in a position even to know what irrational
drugs are, and WHy they are irrational. However, there are many who could if
they had the information with them.
 While educating such individuals, it is very handy to have strong &
RELIABLE sources of information as well as RELIABLE information,
systematically presented, with convincing power backed by facts as to WHY
such & such drugs & combinations are rrational/harmful/useless. A few
examples of such freely available & used drugs in a country like India would
be pentoxifylline, diphenoxylate, combination of nimesulide + paracetamol,
mefenamic acid in paediatrics, cyproheptadine, ginkgo biloba, cough syrup
combinations, to name a few.


 I would like to know whether there is any such information "together in
one place" on the internet, if not, is any agency working towards the same,
and if not, who could take up the task for a humane cause ?

Hoping for a positive response,


Raj Vaidya, M.Pharm,
Community Pharmacist,
Hindu Pharmacy,
Panaji - Goa - India 403001.
Email : rajvaidya@bigfoot.com

Raj, you raise an intersting challenge and certaily one that we can look
into when planning the INDICES website.  Any links which are raised in
discussion here will be collected for future use.

Health ACtion International has been working the "problem drugs field for
many years and have a very good publication - "Problem Drugs"
Here's what they say:

The full text of the book is not available on HAI's website
(http://www.haiweb.org). Background information about the book and its many
translations is given on our publications page
(http://www.haiweb.org/pubs/publications.html)

Single copies of the book are available from our office. Members within the
HAI network have published books on the drugs on their own domestic markets
(groups in the UK and the US have recently published new books on this.) As
for websites that might contain this kind of information, I can't think of a
specific site that does so. Some member groups publicise specific drugs they
have campaigned on. You can visit those website by clicking on "links" from
the HAI website's home page.


Lisa Hayes
HAI Europe


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