I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this. If it is not, I apologize. No one has ever been able to answer this.
Are doctors in the US supposed to warn the patient about augmentation caused by some medications like Ropinirole and about lifelong side effects of treatments, like peripheral neuropathy caused by chemotherapy?
I believe the "law of informed consent" in the US is similar to the same law in the UK.
Under this law any health professional cannoit carry out any treatment without your consent. The consent doesn't have to be written consent, it can be either verbal or it can be implicit. Implicit means that you don't actually refuse. Therefore if a doctor prescribes a medicine and you obtain the prescription and take it, then you're giving consent.
However, the law states that the consent needs to be "informed". This means two things.
The first is thast doctor has to inform you why the medicine is being prescribed, what its benefits are, what its risks are and what alternatives there are. This applies to any medicine.
The second thing is that the person giving consent has to understand the information. So, the Dr should check that you've understood. The Dr should also be certain that you're capable of understanding/giving consent. E.g. in the UK the "Mental capacity act" applies.
Typically when it comes to RLS many doctors simply tell you to take a dopamine agonist without telling you of the side effects and the risks (e.g. augmentation and Impulse Control Disorder) and don't mention any alternative e.g. the alpha 2 delta ligands.
Strictly speaking, even if they do tell you about augmentation and ICD, if you don't understand what these mean, then you're still NOT informed.
In the UK this conduct is also unethical, even if it's not illegal.
The problem is, what do we do about this conduct?
I completely agree with Manerva but would like to add that many doctors (including neurologists!) are not aware of augmentation. All they know, apparently, is that increasing the dose of the current DA, or switching to another DA, may help. But as we know this is just a temporary fix and ultimately worsens the RLS.
Thank you Manerva.. I think they should tell the patient. We are the ones that are going to suffer the side effects so we should decide whether we want to take the medication or go through the treatment.
😡
I live near Portland. I was not warned and I am still a tad bitter over it too.
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