When news reports tout a drug, people get interested, even if the benefits are unproven. Patient hopes, requests and demands can easily turn into real prescriptions in their doctor's office.
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Articles on Off-label prescribing
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Quetiapine is an antipsychotic drug to treat severe mental illness, but it makes people feel sleepy, so has also been used as a sleeping pill – by prescription and illicitly.
Prescribing a drug for a condition it hasn't been tested for may sound reckless, but off-label prescribing has a useful function in medicine.
