Simple medicine actions not understood or poorly understood

[rhan101277]

I was just reading up on Advil PM and it says that the way the NSAID works is not known. I read plenty of information on other drugs that say the way this drug works is not understood or poorly understood. If it is like this then why are they making this medicine and not understanding what is going on.

Seems like there is plenty of things in medicine poorly understood, like disease processes, certain diseases etc.

People are being taught medicine everyday, what if the teachings are from poorly understood areas.

 

[JPINFV]

Life long learning and all that jazz. Medicine is always in a state of flux. New diseases are being discovered and described, the mechanisms of diseases are being detailed in greater and greater detail, new types of drugs and treatments are being found all the time, and many more new things occur. Sometimes the only thing we know is that X works. We might not know all the details on how X works, or sometimes any details, but there comes a point where knowing that X works is enough to use X.

 

[NomadicMedic]

As goes research, so goes the medicine.

Want a great example of how things that we thought were right have gone away? Just look at the algorithm for cardiac arrest from not that long ago... Back in the day every code got Bicarb and high dose Epi.

Hell, in the 1800s, treatment for drowning included having tobacco smoke blown up the rectum and the body rubbed with warm ash or rock salt.

Now that research has proven that treatments like the above lack efficacy, things have changed.

I think much of what we do falls into the category of "poorly understood". Want proof? Read a study on Vasopressin vs. Epi in Cardiac Arrest.

 

[WarDance]

I think this is most widely seen with psychtropic medications. Mental disorders are so poorly understood that many times doctors will start with one med, play with the dosage, try a different med and basically just switch things up until symptoms improve. When they get it right they just say "well this pt. must have been lacking in chemical x because this drug containing chemical x helped." Unfortunately we can't test for neurotransmitters at this point so this is the best we have.

 

[reaper]

As goes research, so goes the medicine.

Want a great example of how things that we thought were right have gone away? Just look at the algorithm for cardiac arrest from not that long ago... Back in the day every code got Bicarb and high dose Epi.

Hell, in the 1800s, treatment for drowning included having tobacco smoke blown up the rectum and the body rubbed with warm ash or rock salt.
Now that research has proven that treatments like the above lack efficacy, things have changed.

I think much of what we do falls into the category of "poorly understood". Want proof? Read a study on Vasopressin vs. Epi in Cardiac Arrest.

They should bring that back. Then we could smoke on the job again!
I would be using a long straw for that procedure!h34r:

 

[NomadicMedic]

I'd be okay with the warm rock salt massage. Sounds nice after a long day.

And the smoke being blown up the rectum never really went away... instead of being performed on patients, now employers do it to the employees.

 

[mycrofft]

At the molecular level most tx are "poorly understood"...that's science.

Beware the people (like me) who have the absolute answers.