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Thursday, August 1, 2019

Not Its Intended Use


A few years ago, we received a microwave popcorn popper as a door prize at an annual meeting. The first time we tried to pop corn, the top melted and the popcorn was charred. Since it didn’t work, I prepared to dump it in the trash.

“Keep it,” my husband, the farmer, said. “We might be able to use it for something else.” I threw away the melted lid and kept the bottom part, against my better judgment. I saw the plastic bowl with a handle as a waste of space. Even as a popcorn popper, I didn’t see much use for it since I can’t eat popcorn.

Oddly enough, we use the plastic bowl almost daily for scraps and vegetable peelings. When we start preparing a meal, one of us will say, “I need the plastic bowl.” Although not its intended use, it is our most used kitchen container.

Every Memorial Day, I search for a plastic vase to take fresh flowers to the Veterans Cemetery. For the unaware, it is practically impossible to find a plastic vase. My husband came up with the idea of cutting the top off a Simply Apple juice bottle and wrapping it in patriotic duck tape. Not its intended use, but it works.

Sometimes medication can be used for a different purpose, called off-label use. It takes years to develop and test medication, but when a drug can be used for more than one condition, it dramatically shortens the time to get the drug to consumers.

One of the off-label uses for the  Alzheimer’s drug Memantine (Nameda) is for it to be added to the standard therapy used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit order (ADHD).

Antipsychotic drugs are often used off label to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. One of the common drugs used is Seroquel. Another off label use for Seroquel is for Insomnia.

I believe more caution should be used in prescribing antipsychotic drugs to people with Alzheimer’s. Jim had some serious reactions to them. Seroquel was commonly prescribed to residents in the Alzheimer’s unit. They tried it on Jim and instead of calming him, it made him hyperactive. Other psychotic drugs caused him to be angry and out of control. One even caused so much foam coming out of his mouth that he couldn’t eat or drink. The physicians treating him swore they had never seen that reaction before.

Although commonly used in people with dementia, antipsychotics increase the risk of death and decrease the quality of life. While looking for a home for Jim, I visited one home where the Alzheimer’s residents appeared to be in a stupor. I thought it odd at the time, but after seeing how antipsychotic drugs affect most people with dementia, I’m sure they were overmedicated.

Not all drugs used off-label are bad. Many years go into the development of prescription drugs and off-label use of an approved drug can bring relief to a patient, or even be life-saving. For example, some cancer drugs are approved for one type of cancer, but may successfully treat a different type. Chemotherapy treatments are often a combination of drugs that fight more than one type of cancer.

Sometimes, veering from the intended purpose can be successful, and sometimes it can create problems. Antipsychotic drugs for people with dementia can be life-threatening and more harmful than helpful. Using a popcorn popper for a receptacle for scraps is handy and safe—in fact, safer than using it in the microwave!

Copyright © July 2019 by L.S. Fisher
#ENDALZ

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