Something previous comments have missed here from the film is the two doctors introduce Cortisone as a new drug. It is only after he starts taking it that the article comes out stating the dangers and his coworker reads it.

In 1973, I was prescribed a course of steroids (Prednisone/Cortisone)for a physical condition that was raging out of control. In short, without this intervention I would not be writing this today.
Medical protocols
did
change from the 50's to the 70's. When I was prescribed Cortisone, the doctor read off a frightening and comprehensive, list of possible side affects. Even then at 23, I sensed this full disclosure was done as a defensive legal necessity. I was so sick I said "Gimme!" and low and behold this "miracle" drug did it's work.
I had to take steroids on and off for many years until surgery 1998 made it unnecessary. I never strayed beyond the recommended dose, and there where many annoying side affects, though nothing close to those in Bigger Than Life. I would say the good out weighed the bad 85% to 15%, so maybe I'm that rare lucky exception who did not become a victim of the cabal between doctors and the pharmaceutical companies.
"You see Uncle Charliethat's how I really feel about you."

Interesting. I never thought of that. With the confidentiality laws today, I wonder if anything would be different. I've seen the same doctor about meds for 11 years, and he has never spoken with my husband. And my husband's doctor has never consulted me about his medication. Of course neither of us is on little-known drugs.
Lol, I'm watching it now, where he tells terrified his wife, "GOD WAS WRONG."
"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"

Much indebted to you, tmaj48 , for this enlightening post.
I want to see this movie again now.
Here is the link to that essay-
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1412-bigger-than-life-somewhere-in-suburbia

Also, according to the commentary on the DVD, the movie was based on a real-life
case history, in which the doctors deliberately kept upping the dosages of the
cortisone, in effect using their patient as a human guinea pig, to test his
"maximum tolerance," with similar unfortunate results. Because of pressure from
the medical establishment of the era, director Nicholas Ray had to divert
responsibility for the abuse of the drug away from the doctors and onto the
patient; the movie depicts James Mason's character as being primarily responsible for the abuse of the drug. In reality, the patient on which the
movie was based was an unwitting victim of his doctors.
The commentary points
out that Ray regretted having to bow to this pressure, and tried to get around
it by making "his attack [on the medical profession] through skewed staging and
odd interpolations.Ray films the doctors like gangsters, and in this respect, particular attention should be paid to the ghoulish, black-haired figure who gets a rather unaccountably held reaction shot when Ed first prepares to leave the hospital, introducing further subterranean currents of
paranoia into the film. He pops up again at the endclosing the door on the family reunion and pausing to give his colleague the most ghastly, cavernous
smile." from the essay "Somewhere in Suburbia" by B. Kite, in the DVD's
accompanying booklet.
They weren't about to tell the wife anything until they got the chance to
experiment on their patient awhile. This still goes on with doctors and
prescription drugs, and the pharmaceutical companies who influence them.
I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!
Hewwo.

Seriously? That was COMPLETELY normal in the 1950s, and even later than that. Doctors were considered gods, and they knew best, and the patient was to do exactly what the doctor said, without questioning.
Completely normal. Wrong, but completely normal.

What was
not
normal was the way the doctor didn't tell the patient about the medicine and its side effects. The real guy this was based on said this doctor never explained anything, just said "here, take this". That's a sh8tty way for a doctor to be, but he said some doctors were like that and it had never even occurred to him to question it until he started wondering why the doctor was increasing the dose.
Damn, for other reasons I was flashing on this movie this afternoon and had no idea it was on. Sorry I missed it. James Mason is
Don't forget your tsvets!

charcas67, Your explanation makes perfect sense!Thanks to you and your friend, I can love this movie unconditionally now.

I have an older friend who remembers the 50's. We both watched the film last night and she brought this up and said that was normal back then for doctors not to tell wives anything about how they were treating their husbands. If a wife didn't assert herself, then she was just ignored, as that was the role of women at the time. Interesting that at the end of the film, the wife is much more assertive with the doctors and nurses.