A pill that medical experts say can cause diabetes, heart arrhythmia, and potentially irreversible movement disorders continues to be prescribed to many Americans who are only seeking a good night’s sleep, reports The Washington Post.
A Washington Post analysis of more than four years of the most recent data from the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System — through the first quarter of 2017 — found about 20,000 cases where Seroquel or its generic equivalent, quetiapine, was listed as the primary or secondary suspect in an adverse event. That included 1,754 deaths in which they were the primary suspect plus 2,309 deaths in which they were a secondary suspect. Overall, 93 percent were apparently the result of off-label prescribing of the drug.
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