Taking the Medicine: A Short History of Medicine’s Beautiful Idea, and our Difficulty Swallowing It

Over the last 2,000 years doctors have killed patients far more often than they saved them, and patients have colluded because they trusted themthis book is about how little and how much has changed For years patients have placed their trust in doctors and the drugs they prescribe; yet as this thought-provoking history of medicine demonstrates, this trust has often been misplaced. Whether prescribing opium or thalidomide, aspirin or antidepressants, doctors have consistently failed to test their favorite ideasoften with catastrophic results. Only with the development of antibiotics after World War II did doctors begin to cure more than they killed. Arguing that the real heroes of medicine are the men and women who demonstrated the vital importance of controlled testing over the "intuition" of doctors, this book questions the new breed of wonder drugs and the control of people's medicinesand their livesby global drug companies. Both alarming and optimistic, this is essential reading for anyone interested in how and why to trust the pills they swallow. Doctors and patients alike trust the medical profession and its therapeutic powers; yet this trust has often been misplaced. Whether prescribing opium or thalidomide, aspirin or antidepressants, doctors have persistently failed to test their favourite ideas - often with catastrophic results. From revolutionary America to Nazi Germany and modern big-pharmaceuticals, this is the unexpected story of just how bad medicine has been, and of its remarkably recent effort to improve. It is the history of well-meaning doctors misled by intuition, of the startling human cost of their mistakes and of the exceptional individuals who have helped make things better. Alarming and optimistic, Taking the Medicine is essential reading for anyone interested in how and why to trust the pills they swallow. Druin Burch's controversial argument is that for most of human history, medicine has been a catastrophe. Telling the stories of major drugs, Burch provides accounts of use and abuse, of accidental findings, and of heroic labours to understand their impact. The book warns us to properly investigate claims about wonder drugs