Risk Versus Benefit of Drug Therapy

When it comes right down to it, drug therapy is a huge risk-benefit exercise that requires a serious consideration of the potential benefits, balanced by the potential risks of that therapy.It might make sense to use a high risk medicine if the benefit is great enough. For example, if a patient has cancer that could respond to chemotherapy, it might be a reasonable decision to start that therapy, in spite of its potential risks.On the other hand, it might make sense to use a medicine that is only partially effective for a condition, as long as it is associated with minimal adverse effects.A situation that you probably want to avoid is the use of a medicine that offers few benefits, but has a high risk of complications such as adverse reactions or drug interactions.So, whenever your physician wants to start you on a new medicine ask these three basic but most important questions: What is the potential benefit of the medicine? What are the potential risks? AND, are the risks worth the potential benefit?