Overuse of Drugs

Most certainly medicine is being prescribed too freely these days. That is a known. And that is not to say medicine is not important and that we are a fortunate world to be living in such enlightened times, but when is enough enough. I believe we have reached that pinnacle. Medicine should be a second choice, not a first choice. The first choice should is to see if there are alternative routes to a cure, and not a cop out with drugs. In other words,seek the cause of the symptoms first before concluding that a powerful drug is the best choice.

When I ran across the headline stating that a study concluded that "newer anti-psychotic drugs were being overused, I immediately agreed. The article by a WebMd writer Brenda Goodman is an excellent one and traces the uses of these drugs back to their beginnings.

"In adults, for example, the use of any antipsychotic medication -- old or new -- remained relatively stable from 1995 to 2001. But from 2001 to 2006 use of the medications doubled, the study showed, indicating that doctors were becoming quicker to turn to these powerful drugs."

Those are startling facts, and it would do all of us good to stop and consider what is wrong with our society that this is happening.

PS:
The image is from a yarn creation. It is not a refined work of art but was a free-hand rendering of a coarse yarn on a piece of fabric that I sewed into a pillow. With my limited skills at embroidery, I attempted to depict an apple tree with a little by picking apples and placing them in a basket. It is now a pillow in my living room.

How does it relate to the overuse of anti-psychotic drugs? This is the best I can come up with at the moment: An apple a day may not keep the doctor away, but it could go a long way in helping the immune system do its work seeing over the health of the body. And a healthy immune system may make anti-psychotic drugs unnecessary. Well, its a thought anyway, probably not an earth shaking one, but we can't all be scientists, can we?