- #1
- 2,179
- 4,230
I am wondering how prevalent overprescribing by doctors is today and whether others have experienced this as well. In order to stay within the guidelines, I'm not discussing specifics of any illnesses, drugs or treatments.
My wife had a recent experience where a general practitioner suggested putting her on a medication. The doctor didn't even bother to tell her that she would have been stuck on it for the rest of her life. We also learned that medication probably would have had side effects that would have also needed treatment. The lifetime mix of drugs would have seriously degraded her health and her life expectancy. During a follow-up with a specialist, he stated that there was absolutely no reason to put her on any medication and that she is fine.
This is not the first time that we have experienced this and it's not just one doctor. It seems that the first response by doctors is not to analyze the problem (if there even is one) but to just prescribe the latest fad drug. With close calls like this, we are very averse to accepting any course of treatment without researching it ourselves first. To be fair, I think that this particular situation could also be a result of the way that my wife approaches her health concerns. She asks for non-standard tests as part of her yearly physical, researches any outlier values and questions the doctors about the results. However, this doesn't explain every incident that we've personally seen.
What is the incidence of overprescribing by doctors today? Is this due to drug companies advertising their products so much that the doctors believe that drugs are a cure-all for everything? Or, is it possibly some other reason such as laziness or plain ignorance?
My wife had a recent experience where a general practitioner suggested putting her on a medication. The doctor didn't even bother to tell her that she would have been stuck on it for the rest of her life. We also learned that medication probably would have had side effects that would have also needed treatment. The lifetime mix of drugs would have seriously degraded her health and her life expectancy. During a follow-up with a specialist, he stated that there was absolutely no reason to put her on any medication and that she is fine.
This is not the first time that we have experienced this and it's not just one doctor. It seems that the first response by doctors is not to analyze the problem (if there even is one) but to just prescribe the latest fad drug. With close calls like this, we are very averse to accepting any course of treatment without researching it ourselves first. To be fair, I think that this particular situation could also be a result of the way that my wife approaches her health concerns. She asks for non-standard tests as part of her yearly physical, researches any outlier values and questions the doctors about the results. However, this doesn't explain every incident that we've personally seen.
What is the incidence of overprescribing by doctors today? Is this due to drug companies advertising their products so much that the doctors believe that drugs are a cure-all for everything? Or, is it possibly some other reason such as laziness or plain ignorance?