John Y. Brown, III: Side Effects

I saw the movie Side Effects last night

A powerful and timely critique if our country’s over reliance on the pharmaceutical industry –and the literal and figurative side effects we experience, and try to deny or (in this film’s case, try to manipulate).

The film refers to about a dozen popular–and actual—mainstream meds prescribed today (from Zoloft to Adderall). But the tragedy in the movie plot centers around a drug called Ablixa.

We are told it is a new drug just approved by the FDA but not told it, unlike other meds referenced, is a fictional drug. Ablixa supposedly is a miracle drug in the film but with potentially worrisome side effects.

And so, we are left to wonder what the ultimate impact if this movie will be on our medicated society–partly healed, partly experimental volunteers, partly risking side effects impossible to rationally justify. Or whether the script option available to our mental health doctors will become once again more of the brilliant medical tool originally intended or increasingly the too-easy crutch to short-circuit dealing with complicated patients and circumstances.

And, finally, and perhaps most poignantly, whether “customers” (aka patients) will stop relying more on the “pitch” of pharmaceutical commercials to deliver miracles than on their doctors to deliver slow but real improvements.

If my reaction is indicative, the answer to all these questions is less encouraging than I had hoped.

I went home and Googled Ablixa —to see if it was a medication I should learn more about. Only to learn it is a fictional drug. And then –chastened and disappointed in myself—checking to see if any new Ablixa-like meds had come out recently. Just in case.