Are Doctors Overprescribing Their
Patients?
Are you currently
taking any prescription drugs or other medications? The overprescribing of drugs has become a serious issue in
America in the past few years. It
seems like everyone you know is on some prescription or a new drug for his or
her heart condition or arthritis.
It has reached the point where people have to actually keep tabs on
which pills they have to take each morning and night.
Refusing to lose
patients, doctors have been said to “hand out” prescriptions to patients even
when there have been clear signs that they do not need them. This could prove to be a problem in the
future if bacteria immunize against these drugs. When doctors write scripts for patients for unneeded drugs,
all it does is adds to the rising health care and pharmaceutical costs of this
country. While in fact a simple
change in lifestyle, such as, decreasing stress or improving diet and exercise,
can be a better solution.
The underlying
cause for this overprescribing is the excessive advertisement of drugs and
medical products today.
Advertising of drug products has created a so-called dramatization of
health-related problems among Americans.
People believe that they are sicker than they are and as a result, they are
influenced to take medicine that they do not actually need. Ultimately, this leads to
overprescribing medications and soaring health care costs for Americans.
To eliminate
overprescribing, we should be more aware of the issues it raises for our
country’s health and economy. We should also urge doctors and patients to use
non-drug alternatives such as, lifestyle changes and therapy. What
else do you think could be done to prevent overprescribing? Do you believe that doctors and patients have
fallen into the “drug trap”?
Sources:
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