Going "off-label," are we?

Here's an interesting new term surfacing more and more often:

off label

What does it mean? Well in the context of medicine, getting an off-label prescription means you're popping pills for some reason other than what the manufacturer intended.

For example, people (mainly women) have discovered that taking fist-fulls of prescription meds intended for other uses will help them lose weight.

Here's what the Wall Street Journal had to say about it:

The list includes drugs meant to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (Adderall and Ritalin), depression (Wellbutrin), epilepsy (Topamax and Zonegran), diabetes (Glucophage and Byetta), sleep disorders (Provigil), smoking (Zyban) and even opiate overdoses (Narcan). Often these drugs are used alone, but sometimes they're taken in combination with each other or with popular weight-loss medications, such as phentermine.

Amazing . . . science of a sorts at work.