The New York Times is reporting today (link requires registration) that several atypical antipsychotic (AA) drugs increase the patient’s risk of diabetes. This includes Zyprexa and Risperidal, the two leading AAs.
This is a bummer for anyone who’s on AAs. Of course the near-term benefits of the AA are often worth significant downline risk: how do you enjoy your healthy old age without your sanity? But — especially if you’ve been prescribed AAs because you suffer from mental illness — how difficult would it be to believe the following paranoid scenario: The pharmaceutical companies are giving you one drug (”because you’re crazy”) to make you diabetic and thereby hook you on their diabetes-management products?
Probably there’s a Philip K. Dick novel which explores this issue.