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Which Drugs Are On The FDA’s Potential Risk List?

Are all of the drugs that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approves safe to use? Although all of the drugs have been thoroughly tested and although most of the drugs are safe, some drugs can cause you or a loved one harm. In fact, dozens of dangerous prescription drugs have been recalled and pulled off of the shelves over the past few decades - drugs that were supposed to be safe for consumers.

To help prescription drug users stay safe, the FDA has a webpage, the Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS), which lists any drugs that have the potential to carry safety risks. Although these drugs are not being recalled, they do have a history of causing health problems or have raised other concerns.

Here are a few potentially dangerous or defective drugs that are on the FDA's potentially dangerous drug list:

· Cough medicine that contains codeine. The FDA has spent both time and resources researching the affect of codeine in children who take over-the-counter cough and cold medicines. Most of these concerns arise from parents not reading the medicine labels correctly or parents giving their children an adult dosage of these medications. There have also been reports of the lack of child safety caps on some codeine medications.

· Oral bisphosphonates, used to treat osteoporosis, osteopenia and Paget's disease of bone. These drugs may be linked to esophageal cancer in some patients.

· Mefloquine, or Lariam. Lariam is used to protect against and treat malaria; however, it has been known to cause a wide array of psychiatric events in up to a quarter of those who take it, such as depression, anxiety, nightmares, suicidal thoughts, insomnia, and other disturbances. These problems can be permanent and severe.

· Selective serotonin and selective norepinephrine reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI and SNRI) antidepressants. These two common types of antidepressants are also used in the treatment of anxiety and ADHD. The FDA is currently evaluating whether or not these types of drugs can cause birth defects.

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