Dangerous Drugs - Remicade
Remicade is the brand name of infliximab, a drug prescribed to treat a variety of conditions, most commonly Crohn's disease and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. It functions by blocking proteins that signal the body's inflammation response. Remicade is typically administered at two month intervals (or some other comparably-spaced interval). It cannot be taken at home; it must be administered intravenously by skilled medical providers in a supervised setting.
Because of its strength, Remicade was first heralded as a great relief to patients experiencing pain and limited flexibility from these conditions, and it is the most widely used drug of its type worldwide. But this strength comes with dangers as well, and once use of the drug became widespread, significant side effects soon became apparent.
Numerous studies have linked Remicade to lymphoma and other blood disorders and also to infections such as pneumonia and tuberculosis. In 2006, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study from Mayo Clinic showing that Remicade increased the risk of other conditions as well, including doubling the risk for serious infection and tripling the risk for several types of cancer, including breast, skin, lung and gastrointestinal cancers. Other reports have linked Remicade to rare but sometimes fatal instances of liver injury, cellulitis, lupus and neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and seizures.
The AMA study showed that for patients taking Remicade, the higher the dosage and the longer they took it, the greater the risks became. Those risks were shown to increase even more when Remicade was used with other drugs. As knowledge of the risks became widespread, the FDA issued a warning to alert doctors that the drug's risks extended beyond those listed on its manufacturing label. Even so, doctors continue to prescribe Remicade because they say its pain-relief benefits outweigh its risks.
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