Over-Prescribed Medication - Essay Example

Over-Prescribed Medication Over-Prescribed Medication Medical over prescription is the recommendation of excessive amount of medication needed by patients. Over prescription and subsequently, overuse of drugs is an increasing concern in many countries around the world. This medical malpractice is the primary contributor to high drug cost and increasing prevalence of disease anti-resistance. Both doctors and patients are responsible for over-prescription of drugs, but in most cases, doctors overprescribe drugs due to patients’ insistence. Moreover, some of the drugs that are overprescribed end up being unnecessary. For example, a study reports that doctors prescribe antibiotics for respiratory infections in children, yet the antibiotics are ineffective against the bacteria (Smith, 2012). Notably, over-prescription of medicine is a common ineffective treatment practice in the medical sector, which instead, leads to drug addiction, drug abuse, and even death of patients. Over prescription of medication leads to a number of health problems. According to Lessenger and Feinberg (2007), over-prescription of drugs can easily drive patients to drug addiction where the patients become dependent on that particular medication for survival. Being an addict, one cannot control his/her urge to use the drugs despite the harmful effects. Addiction interferes with the normal functioning of the brain causing long-term consequences to the patients, including mental health conditions. Moreover, addiction causes a financial strain for the patient and the family members, as the addict uses a lot of money to maintain the addiction, as well as in intervention programs. In addition, over prescription leads to drug abuse where patients use drugs for nontherapeutic purposes. Lessenger and Feinberg (2007) state that drug abuse due to over-prescription has steadily increased because according to their research, they found out that 6.4 million people making up 2.6% of the population have abused prescription medication. Most people abuse drugs in order to alter their state of consciousness or emotions by believing that it makes them feel good and forget their worries. When medical practitioners over-prescribe drugs to citizens, they make those drugs readily available for non-medical use leading to misuse or abuse. According to an article on USA Health Statistics, Americans consume over half of all drugs produced in the world today. This revelation is an indication that the majority of citizens in the country misuse the drugs prescribed to them. Based on the fact that Americans constitute only 5% of the population in the world, the rate at which the country consumes medicines is worrying. Evidently, Americans consume 25 million pills per hour, a clear indication that most citizens abuse drugs (USA Health Statistics, n.d.). Furthermore, over-prescription of drugs can easily lead to suffering or death of patients. The USA Health Statistics states that though approximately 15,000 Americans die from illegal substance abuse every year, out of this number, 10,000 deaths are due to properly prescribed drugs (n.d.). The statistics further states that between 106,000 and 196,000 people die each year in the USA hospitals due to appropriately prescribed medication, but under over-prescribed circumstances. Some prescription drugs are always a misfit to the patients. In such cases, usage of the over prescribed drug by doctors can easily cause death or suffering to the patient such as mental problems, depression, sleeplessness, or dizziness. Moreover, over prescription can easily lead to drug resistance by the body. Body’s resistance to drugs is the reduction in effectiveness of a drug in curing or eliminating disease-causing organisms in the body. It is always due to mutation of the disease-causing pathogens to the drug caused by continuous usage of such a drug resulting in its ineffectiveness. For instance, over-prescription of antibiotics that are not indicated for clinical use can easily cause drug resistance. Prescription of drugs is not an effective source of treatment since they are not always coupled with supportive therapies. Under this mode of treatment, patients are directly given drugs by their doctors without any close monitoring. In addition, some medications overprescribed by doctors require post care that patients rarely receive from the medical personnel. It can easily lead to serious medical problems for some patients under such medication including cases of patient overdose. Due to this, many doctors have been sued for over-prescribing drugs and medical negligence of patients. The USA Health Statistics shows that 80,000 people die in the country annually due to medical malpractices such as doctor’s negligence that arises from prescription of drugs and lack of patient monitoring (n.d.). Since most patients receive prescription drugs without proper evaluation by medical personnel, they end up receiving ineffective and over-prescribed drugs, which worsens their sufferings instead of effecting treatment (Smith, 2012). In such situations where a patient’s body required a limited amount of drugs, but the drug was overprescribed, such a person may develop complications. These difficulties come from over usage of a particular drug that was not required by the body. The USA Health Statistics concurs by stating that the real drug problem in the country is over usage of prescription drugs. Moreover, over-prescribed drugs leads to multiple usages of different medicines at the same time. It limits the effectiveness of the drugs since they all cannot be active at the same time in the body. Thus, use of a combination of drugs can result in multiple side effects on the patient. Over 140,000 USA citizens die annually due to side effects of overprescribed drugs in the country (USA Health Statistics, n.d.). The fact that one uses different types of over prescribed drugs at a time makes him/her vulnerable to a series of side effects of these medicines leading to fatal health complications. Ethical issues also arise from prescription of drugs, as some doctors merely prescribe medicine on patients’ request because they need the money. More so, some doctors work with pharmaceutical companies to encourage people to buy certain drugs so that the drug companies have more sales and the doctor, in return, makes extra cash. To prove this, data from USA Health Statistics show that doctors can get $4,000 per patient referred to any drug company. It means doctors stand to gain by overprescribing and referring customers to such companies. In addition, the same statistics show that the pharmaceutical companies always spend around $8,000 to $13,000 on physicians annually. Hence, pharmaceuticals encourage doctors to over prescribe drugs since it increases their profit margin. Additionally, the companies encourage the purchase of such drugs by investing millions of dollars in advertisement, yet in most cases, the advertised drugs are not always as effective as indicated. Furthermore, most doctors and physicians lack unconditional positive regard. Unconditional positive regard is a psychological concept that requires doctors and medical practitioners to show their patients respect and acceptance without judgment. By adopting the unconditional positive regard attitude, doctors ensure that they respect the will of the patients regardless of their opinion or intentions. However, when doctors lack unconditional positive regard, they ignore and disregard their patient’s feelings and thoughts concerning medical prescription. Thus, doctors offer overprescribe drugs against some patients’ will. Moreover, some doctors not only prescribe one type of drug, but multiple medications without the patient’s consent, which may cause health problems as discussed earlier in this paper. Therefore, instead of looking out for the patient’s wellbeing, doctors are concerned with personal gain thus; they overprescribe drugs, which allow them to make more money. Nevertheless, some proposers of over-prescription believe that it has some positive outcomes. When drugs are over prescribed, patients will have medicine at their disposal in case of an emergency. Thus, the patient can quickly take their drugs as per the doctor’s instructions and avert the situation or manage the condition until he/she reaches the hospital. In addition, some of these drugs are always preventive in nature. They can quickly aid in preventing more grave and dangerous health conditions. However, overprescribed medication is still dangerous because it puts the life of the patient at risk. Moreover, in an emergency, the patient may be too confused to remember the dosage or the correct medicine to take leading to the possibility of taking a wrong dosage or drug. Evidently, America as a country has an enormous problem with prescription medicine. Over prescription of drugs has an adverse effect on the ordinary citizens. Over-prescription leads to problems such as drug abuse, addiction, and even death. Moreover, most of the overprescribed drugs are ineffective for treatment of the intended illnesses or diseases. In order to curb this practice, the government needs to ensure that doctors undergo rigorous training and courses on prescription techniques. Consumers of drugs should also be given more information on the adverse effects of over-prescription and the medical conditions they are exposed to due to such practices. Additionally, pharmaceuticals should be banned from advertising ineffective medicinal products because the adverts entice and encourage citizens to use them. References Lessenger, J., & Feinberg, S. (2007). Abuse of prescription and over-the-counter medication. Journal Of The American Board Of Family Medicine, 21(1): 45-54. Smith, B. (2012). Inappropriate Prescribing. Journal of American Psychological Association, 43(6), 36. Retrieved 17 Feb. 15 from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/06/prescribing.aspx US Health Statistic: Americans Most Over-Prescribed Country in The World, Retrieved 17 Feb. 15from http://www.enlightenamerica.com/files/Over-Prescribed.pdf Read More