Thanks to my friend S who found this one.

“Doctors today are liberally writing prescriptions for psychotropic drugs such as Aderall, Ambien, Zoloft, Paxil, Seroquil, Prozac, Wellbutrin and Effexor, to name but a few. Often these drugs are combined in polypharmacy cocktails or are given out for off label use, meaning for unapproved or untested indications, leading to abuse, dangerous side effects and heavy dependence. Off Label crosses the United States to look at lives affected by the pharmaceutical industry: professional guinea pigs who make their living as drug test subjects, pharmaceutical reps who haunt doctor’s offices promoting their products and patients hooked on a never-ending cycle of pill popping. A sometimes humorous and often tragic peek inside the medicine cabinets of America, Off Label reveals a country addicted to a pharma-culture.” Lynne Crocker

http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/title/off_label

Globe & Mail review…

Off Label
Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher (USA)
THREE STARS

Fresh from a world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York comes this searing examination of the abuse and misuse of pharmaceutical drugs in overmedicated America. Palmieri and Mosher make no pretense of being “fair and balanced” – there are no interviews with any representatives of Big Pharma – but that’s Off Label’s strength: It’s an up-close and unflinching look at the human cost. There’s a mother mourning her son’s suicide after his physician enrolled him in an antidepressant trial. A former Iraq medic whose treatments for PTSD aren’t working. An African-American Muslim used as a human lab rat after being jailed for marijuana possession. Excruciatingly compelling. James Adams.

April 28, 7 p.m., Bader; April 29, 3:30 p.m., Bloor; May 5, 9:15 p.m., Cumberland.

Related articles

•  https://recoverynetworktoronto.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/11-of-drugs-prescribed-for-off-label-use/
• https://recoverynetworktoronto.wordpress.com/resources/coming-off-medications/
• https://recoverynetworktoronto.wordpress.com/resources/reclaiming-your-power-during-medication-visits/

• ‘Off Label’ Shows Drug-Ravaged Life of Young Soldier (abcnews.go.com)
• ‘Off Label’ Premieres at Tribeca Film Festival (Review) (popmatters.com)
• Off-label: deep exploration into ways pharmaceuticals are marketed, sold, consumed, and ultimately treated with the same reverence as a religious belief (beyondmeds.com)
• Off-Label Medication (leadermedicalinformation.wordpress.com)
• Underreported: Human Guinea Pigs for Pharmaceuticals (wnyc.org)