Wake up, this is scary!

Like others, I was totally shocked when Heath Ledger died. He was so young, only 28 years old, and seemingly in good health. When the initial autopsy reports came back inconclusive, I had the horrible sinking feeling that he died from an accidental overdose of medications prescribed by his doctors. Today's report from the New York medical examiner confirms it. It's so sad that such a talented young man died but what is truly scary is that he wasn't abusing his medications--he wasn't necessarily even taking high doses of them. His father said,

"While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy. Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage."

Hidden dangers is right! I went to a website that will check drug interactions of prescribed medications and all the stuff Ledger took warned of "moderate" drug interactions--all of them depressed his respiratory system. Then I plugged in all the medications that I take and almost totally freaked out!

What are doctors thinking when they prescribe this stuff? All of them ask you for a list of meds when you go see them. None of them has ever told me about the possibilities of some of these interactions--I probably wouldn't be taking the stuff I am now had I known. Two of the meds I take for depression can cause a major interaction called serotonin syndrome. It says doctors should monitor patients "closely"--well, what does that mean? I don't particularly feel like I'm being closely monitored by any of my doctors except for the internist--for diabetes.

It's not just the depression and anxiety medications interacting with each other. They also apparently interact with the blood pressure and thyroid medications too, and all of those interact with each other. It's really scary! I'm sure that in many cases the benefits outweigh the risks but still! I printed out my report and will be showing them to my doctors. This is why patients have to question the doctors carefully when they're prescribed something.

I bet Heath Ledger never thought something his doctors would prescribe for him would work together to kill him!