Many of us know that doctors prescribe drugs for uses other than those approved by the FDA.
This article discusses off-label drug prescribing and suggests that physicians who prescribe a drug for an off-label use follow the following steps to obtain informed consent:
- a statement that the off-label use is an “experimental use” so all the possible side effects and complications are not known;
- a list of the common and/or known risks and complications with use of the medication;
- a statement that the details of the treatment have been fully explained in lay terms or in terms that are easily understood by the patient;
- a statement that no guarantees about the results of the medication are given; and
- a statement that the patient is not required to take the medication.
Read the entire article here.