Just a comment on our society in the U.S. in relation to medications:
since every human being in the history of Earth dies eventually (excluding Jesus Christ), it would be quite simple to associate every medication ever invented as being involved in "sudden death." The real problem in our litigenous society is slowing the massive pendulum from swinging in its current direction. There is an over-cautious mentality, and a sense that all of our drugs must be deemed "safe."
We need to get over this pipe-dream, and everyone (especially the F-ing lawyers and the patients who hire them) needs to accept the fact that NO DRUG IS SAFE. Before too long, we won't have any drugs for anything. And it gets increasingly frustrating for my patients who are WILLING to accept the inherent risk of taking a certain drug only to find that it's no longer available in the U.S. Vioxx was an awesome drug for muscular and skeletal pain, dysmenorrhea, and arthritis. Too bad I still have patients who have never found an NSAID that worked as well as that one, including myself personally.
