Legal Question in Health Care Law in California

I am curious why you think you have any grounds to sue the producer of the melatonin? It is well established that melatonin may have effects on heart rhythms and may cause arrhythmia, as well as sometimes be useful in treating arrhythmia that has other causes. Most drugs and many supplements have known side effects, some of them quite serious. You can't successfully sue a drug or supplement maker just because you suffer side effects with no other basis for liability. So what basis do you think you have for suing? If anything, it sounds like you might have a case against the doctors who did not try directing you to try cutting out the melatonin before doing all the other stuff. From :Timothy McCormick

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Tim, not sure where you have seen the statement that "melatonin may have effects on heart rhythms and may cause arrhythmia, as well as sometimes be useful in treating arrhythmia that has other causes". I look over and over on the medication description on the bottle and nowhere it can be found the claim. Maybe it should be stated so that patient can be clear of such effect. do you still think there is no ground of legal case? thanks, yours.


Asked on 1/05/12, 11:17 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Because melatonin is classified as a dietary supplement, not a drug, the regulations regarding labeling and warnings do not apply. So the absence of a warning on the label is not something you can sue over. As for where I found the statement, I wrote it, based on information that is readily available on the internet and in the medical literature.

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Answered on 1/07/12, 5:44 pm


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