Why do doctors overprescribe nowdays?

Money.

1. drug companies pay doctors to use their brands
2. you have to return for more visits thus more money

i mean thats my opinion on it. and dont get me wrong, there are alot of GOOD doctors who really care and treat people to cure them.

This is from someone who refuses to take drgs and dislikes psychiatrists because they love to push meds. I am not a fan of drgs, and I believe doctors overprescribe like crazy. There are teachers who will tell their parents their kids have ADHD and so the parents will put them on drgs (just so the teacher doesnt have to deal with a noisy kid). No physician should be allowed to dispense psychotropics. And yes, drg companies factor into all of this. Not to mention insurance companies who would rather a person be on medication because it is cheaper.

Now, back to the real world. Psychiatrists are expensive (thus people go to their family doctors). Psychotherapy is expensive. There are a lot of people in this world who do not have the time or money to sit for an hour every week (if you’re talking about kids, you need several types of counseling, including family counseling) and wait to get better in a few months. So, as much as we demonize dr*gs, it is actually helpful to some people. For many people it is a short cut and it isnt right. But some people need those meds. It’s rare for kids to have pharmacies in their homes unless you’re looking at severe problems, like childhood onset bipolar and ADHD etc, in combination. And honestly, I dont know what I’d do if my kid was presenting with all these problems.

Because those medications have to be paid for somehow either by the one they’re prescribed to, their insurence, or medicade, or however. So it’s all about making money when it comes right down to it.

Because it’s easier to write a script than treat the problem.

True story I haven’t divulged to anyone (even my bosses): April, 2009: After having a surgery, I developed excruciating back pain. My doctor put me on Vicodin 5mg. Then up to 10mg. Within a month, it didn’t work anymore, so they put me on Percocet 10mg (every single day, 4x a day). A few months later, that didn’t work and they were worried about my liver with the acetaminophen, so they put me on Roxicodone (basically strong Percocet without the Tylenol). Well, they didn’t tell me how addictive it was. Soon, I was up to 4 Oxycontin a day PLUS a Fentanyl patch (strong drug they give to cancer patients). All within a year. And I was addicted.

I’m now in a recovery program, clean of all pain medication and using Suboxone to help me. 25 days clean and my work has greatly improved, as has my life. But I no longer trust doctors.

The kicker? My back pain is totally tolerable.

Oh plus I need to attend an addiction support group every week. Pills took over my life for an entire year. Thanks, Doc.

uhm wow. The minute you started talking about those particular pills warning signals started screeching (I think that substance abuse class is forever going to stick in my head). For one thing I cant believe they put you on that kind of regimen and for another I cant believe they didnt tell you how extremely addictive those are. I know how incredibly hard it is to quit something that addictive, it takes a lot out of you.

Patents, themselves, ask for pills. They also want the “easy way out”…take prozac instead of getting to the root of the problem.

Americans have always kind of liked taking a pill for this and a pill for that….part of it is culturaly.

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Money and Time.

Doctors want more money and make less time for their patients.

Patients feel that they do not have time to deal with the issue properly and thus get more pills.

It’s stupid in my opinion and causes more problems then it solves. Just the other day I had a lady come into the pharmacy I work, she complained about back pain to her doctor and he gave her stronger medication to help deal with it. Yet, the specific lady is about 170 kg’s (VERY BADLY overweight) and I am willing to bet that is the root cause of her back pain.