A cascade of changes to eligibility guidelines for the updated COVID-19 vaccines left Americans unsure whether they could still get the shot. That’s where off-label use comes in.
Articles on Off-label prescribing
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Excluding pregnant women from drug trials is standard. But medication use during pregnancy has gone up, and many women are using drugs ‘off-label’ – in ways that haven’t been clinically tested and approved.
There is no legal duty to tell a patient they have been prescribed a drug ‘off label’.
Antipsychotics can have severe side effects, there’s a lack of guidance on how to stop taking these drugs safely.
The CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine provider agreement prohibits health care professionals from administering the vaccines in people for whom they are not yet authorized or approved. But this departs from longstanding norms.
When news reports tout a drug, people get interested, even if the benefits are unproven. Patient hopes, requests and demands can easily turn into real prescriptions in their doctor’s office.
Quetiapine is an antipsychotic drug to treat severe mental illness, but it makes people feel sleepy, so has also been used as a sleeping pill – by prescription and illicitly.
Prescribing a drug for a condition it hasn’t been tested for may sound reckless, but off-label prescribing has a useful function in medicine.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati
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Assistant Professor of Law and Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Washington and Lee University
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Professor of Health Policy and Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis
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Senior lecturer, Newcastle University
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Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, University of Portsmouth
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Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Mater Health SEQ in conjoint appointment as Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Bond University and as Associate Professor (Clinical), The University of Queensland
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Associate Professor in Pharmacy Practice, Kingston University
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Professor, Mental Health and Addiction, Rural Health Research Institute, Charles Sturt University