Assignment 4-1
The dispensing of prescription drugs by doctors and pharmaceutical advertising have steadily increased over the past decade. It has become popular to see prescription drug ads from the pharmaceutical entities directed to the public (3). There seems to be a pill for everything. I am not against utilizing modern medicine. I do believe that it has become too easy for doctors to dispense a medicine and for the public to increasing take more and more prescriptions to the detriment of their heath instead of to the betterment of their health.
Advertising by Pharmaceutical companies have increased the knowledge of the public in addition to doctors as to the various drugs that are available (3). The companies are attempting to change how doctors prescribe medications and which medications they describe (1).
My husband has been disabled for a little over 20 years. There has been an increase in the past few years as to the medications his doctors have wanted to prescribe. Three years ago, he and I decided we needed to try to get him off of some of the medications as they had him on a typed letter size page full (one column). When we did that, several of his medical conditions were illuminated. We have recently found out he has liver damage due to all the medications he has been on.
My dad is currently in the hospital with his kidneys almost completely shut down from prescription medications that have been given to him.
Is our society and more so our doctors, succumbing to all these ads produced by the pharmaceutical companies and receiving this information without questioning if the medications are harmful? Are we conscious of the side effects and how the medications work with one another? Or do we blindly trust our physicians in what they prescribe?
Prescription medication can be beneficial if taken wisely. It can kill us and has killed people that have abused prescription drugs both ignorantly and purposefully.
Taking medication is a popular accepted practice. I hope we are doing it wisely.
References
1. Ebeling, M. (2008, February 21). Beyond Advertising: The Pharmaceutical Industry's Hidden Marketing Tactics | Center for Media and Democracy. Center for Media and Democracy | Publishers of PR Watch. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://www.prwatch.org/node/7026
2. Lexchin, MD, B. (n.d.). CJEM and pharmaceutical advertisements: it’s time for an end | Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine. Welcome to CJEM | Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine. Retrieved October 24, 2010, from http://www.cjem-online.ca/v11/n4/p375
3. Pharmaceuticals - National Drug Threat Assessment 2005. (n.d.). Welcome to the United States Department of Justice. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from http://www.justice.gov/ndic/pubs11/12620/pharma.htm
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