My doctor wants to prescribe a drug to me that isn't meant for my illness. She says that it's an off-label use, but if the FDA has approved it for one thing, how can a doctor legally prescribe it for another?
The United States FDA regulates what the pharmaceuticals can sell to the public. The FDA approves the ingredients of the medications, the doses, what they're used for, how often they're taken and how long they are taken for. However, the FDA cannot tell a doctor how to practice medicine. So, if the doctors find that a medication that was originally meant for disease A also is very helpful in treating disease B, they may legally prescribe it for that reason. It's important to understand that doctors don't just choose different medications to use for different illnesses. These extra uses are discovered in the course of using them for their original indication. What happens is doctors may prescribe the medication and then notice that it has effects on other illnesses. Once this is noticed more often, the news spreads and doctors learn more about the medication and other potential uses.
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