If the choice for Pete was either a damaged liver or a complete psychological meltdown, I imagine they would have at least given him the option of staying on his pills until his liver failed. Especially since the liver is one of the least problematic organs to transplant. Or maybe they could have given him something to alleviate the liver damage.
shareIt sounded like whatever company that makes the drug that he was on was discontinuing it. I don't think the doctors really had any say in it, which is why Pete's doctor told him to keep taking his pills until they run out. If the doctor was super concerned about Pete's liver, he would've told him to not even take the rest of the pills. I'm sure the pharma company that makes those pills didn't wanna get sued when they found out how badly it f-cked up people's livers and they stopped making it.
sharei also thought there was something too convenient to make him psycho with not other option.
what, no partially similar drug that will at least calm him down?
Seemed like the FDA pulled it. So no drug company could continue to make the drug, or a knockoff brand, even if they wanted to.
The very real problems with our (specifically, mental) health care system were definitely an important part of this story.
Yes, either the FDA pulled its approval or the drug company could have done the ethical thing and pulled it themselves. If that latter scenario still seems implausible, they could have decided to pull it to avoid law suits.
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules. "
-Walter Sobchak
I don't remember if they ever specified what Pete's mental diagnosis was. In any case, the options for severe psychosis are hot great. Other approved drugs can cause horrible side effects that are so bad that patients don't take the drugs. Some people are much more affected by side effects than others, and some people are helped more than others. We can assume that Pete was in the category where other drugs didn't help him enough to put up with the side effects.
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules. "
-Walter Sobchak
Just watched it yesterday, I'm pretty sure it wasn't just the liver that was getting damaged, I remember something about the intestines too.
share