As I was watching a commercial for some drug or other (don't get me smarted), as the list of possible adverse occurrences was run off at hyperspeed while images of happiness flowed by happily, I thought of the perfect drug. It's for hypochondriacs. It only has side effects.
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I've been a science fiction fan for decades. Not long before his death, I got to meet one of my favorite writers -- Ted Sturgeon. When he discovered I was a physician, he told me that he had had a revelation. "Drugs," he told me, "don't have side effects." "Umm" I replied. "Drugs, " he went on, "have effects. Sometimes you like the effects; sometimes you DON'T like the effects."
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes, I later learned, one patient's "side effect" is another's *primary* effect…
By golly, I think he was right. (He was a favorite of mine, too.)
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