EVIDENCE OF OVERPRESCRIBING IN TODAY’S HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Prescription medication is one of the most common methods used to treat various physical and psychological ailments. As the pharmaceutical industry grows in the wake of successful pharmacological treatments, there is also growing concern regarding the overuse of medication. Evidence of overprescribing is supported by the increase of reported negative side effects associated with prolonged overuse of medication. In addition, overprescribing is also supported by the growing rate of deliberate medication misuse in the United States for purposes of abuse and profit. Similarly, the rise in funds allocated for direct-to-consumer and physician-focused advertising reinforce the perception
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For example, medication-overuse headache (MOH), also known as a rebound headache, is commonly caused by the overuse of pain relief medication. In Europe, North America, and Asia, 1% of the population is diagnosed with MOH, a condition likely preventable through vigilant medication management. Similarly, serotonin syndrome occurs when there is excess serotonin in the brain. Serotonin syndrome is a life-threatening drug reaction attributed to the use of antidepressants and can be an adverse side effect of multiple drug interactions. In an era where medications are overprescribed, negative side effects, such as MOH and serotonin syndrome, are likely to increase in correlation to the growing use of prescription …show more content…
Advertising companies have capitalized on people’s desire for expedient and effective results by changing their sales strategies in order to increase profit. Consumers and physicians are specifically targeted in direct-to-consumer advertising strategies, such as ads on television, magazines, and other physician-focused promotions. Studies that assess the effect of advertising show an increase in prescribing practices as well as an increase on the demand for prescription medication. Because prescription medications are perceived as valuable for health maintenance, economic theorists predict changes in marketing costs are not likely to impact pharmaceutical sales further demonstrating the strong relationship between physicians’ willingness to prescribe and patients’ need to consume medications. The cyclical relationship of advertising companies, to physicians, and to consumers reveals the significant influence money can have on prescribing practices, which may have strong implications for overprescribing
The rise in costs of prescription medicines affects all sectors of the health care industry, including private insurers, public programs, and patients. Spending on prescription drugs continues to be an important health care concern, particularly in light of rising pharmaceutical costs, the aging population, and increased use of costly specialty drugs. In recent history, increases in prescription drug costs have outpaced other categories of health care spending, rising rapidly throughout the latter half of the 1990s and early 2000s. (Kaiseredu.org, 2012).
When asked most people will say they are on at least one medication whether it be something over the counter or prescription. John Tirman in his book “100 Ways America Is Screwing up the World” writes about Big Pharma and how it has become both a domestic and global problem. Tirman discusses how American drug companies have a greater profit margin then most fortune 500 companies writing, “in 2004, the top nine American drug companies- this listed on Fortune 500- made median profit margin of 16 percent of revenues compared with 5.23 percent for other Fortune 500 industries” (Tirman 90). He goes on to talk more about how Big Pharma is dominating the industry, telling the reader that they are spending more on advertising than research. Tirman
In recent years, studies have shown that over medication has become prevalent in America. Overmedication is when a patient uses unnecessary or excessive amounts of medication. Unfortunately, a large number of people have died from over medication. This is caused by doctors or specialists prescribing too much medication to their patients, or by people taking too much medication to ease their pain without precaution. This not only affects a person physically but also mentally. If a person feels that medication is the only helping them, then they will keep taking those pills, resulting in the destruction of the body and mind. Plus millions of dollars are spent on prescription pills, which is another reason why there is so much over medication. Overmedication in America has a negative impact on society, which is leading to physical and mental damages.
We in America tend to take medications for almost any problem we have, from headaches to gastrointestinal pain, to more serious chronic disorders such as depression and attention deficit disorder. While many of the uses of such medications may be necessary and legitimate, many are not, and due to this fact, many people become dependent on medications, mentally, and or physically. This problem is not simply the fault of the individual; in fact, the blame can also be placed upon the medical community, and the pharmaceutical companies who produce the drugs. How often can one turn on the television to see advertisements for Claritin, Aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, or even Zoloft or Ritalin? The pharmaceutical industry is motivated by monetary
Drug companies spend enormous amounts of money on advertising their products. From TV commercials to print ads to bulk mail advertisements, they cover the entire spectrum of marketing techniques. However, change is afoot and most drug companies are reevaluating their advertising strategies and how they spend their money.
There are many perceived medical issues connected with the non-medicinal utilization of doctor prescribed medications, which are turning out to be more obvious in the media as an expanding number of shocking sudden passing cases are accounted for (Hamilton, 2009). The individuals who mishandle doctor prescribed medications put themselves at a much higher hazard for cardiovascular and respiratory disappointment, seizures, stroke, and other physical and psychological well-being issues to give some examples.
(2002) argue in their study that most consumers, as a result of the emotional rather than informational ads, request for the adverts they have seen. With the aim of examining the link between the drug adverts and the patient’s request for the prescription. The study shows that a good number of the visiting patients to the hospitals normally request for the prescriptions that they have watched being advertised in the televisions (p. 279). Most of these patients have a higher possibility of influencing the decisions of the physicians, with a large number of the doctor having the highest tendency to agree with them in the quest for the advertised drug. Therefore, it is true that he advertising prescriptions through the direct consumer adverts has a greater appeal that also impact doctors when giving out their decisional prescriptions to patients who insist on
Have you ever noticed how many advertisements there are on TV for prescription medicine? How about in magazines or on web pages? Pharmaceutical companies have a preponderant influence in America’s use of medicine than you might think, and not just by making the medicines we use. These companies have also contributed to the rising spending on medications and use falsehood to sell more products. Drug companies have a huge effect on our lives as Americans, but not always in the best way.
Ads for pharmaceutical drugs are everywhere. They are in magazines, on television and radio, on billboards, and on the little bags that you get from the pharmacist. These days it is difficult to get away from all the drug advertising. All these ads are for products that require a doctor's prescription. The goal of advertising is to increase profits. By advertising so heavily for drugs that the majority of the population does not need, pharmaceutical companies attempt to create as large a consumer base as they can. In advertising directly to the consumer, the drug companies accomplish two objectives. First, they get information directly to the consumer. Second, they promote the product and
What if I told you that the medication you were prescribed by your doctor, and take on a daily basis is not needed? Would that make you lose confidence in your physician? The first question that would come into your mind would probably be, “Well, then why am I taking this?” Doctors are overzealous in writing out prescriptions for their patients without properly diagnosing them. The main issues on this topic are that drug treatments are not always necessary, doctors are being compensated by the pharmaceutical companies for promoting their products, doctors just simply don’t have enough time to properly diagnose their patients, and the new healthcare act is affecting how doctors treats your issues. This essay will thoroughly prove these statements.
Both physicians and patients rely on the Pharmaceutical industry to adequately provide medication to address public health concerns ranging from depression to obesity, to name a few. An increased reliance on medication leads to the creation of one of the largest and most profitable pharmaceutical corporations to exist across the world. However, because pharmaceutical companies profit from the drugs they sell, they have incentives to influence the public into buying the drugs they produce; the main objective of pharmaceutical companies then becomes primarily to maximize profits through the selling of drugs, while disregarding the well-being of the population (Moynihan and Mintzes 2010, 2). Thus, Pharmaceutical drug marketing leads to the
Advertising for prescription drugs has soared in recent years. In 2014, 61.6 percent of the pharmaceutical (pharma) industry’s direct-to-consumer advertising was via television ads, which resulted in related spending rising above $5.2 billion dollars (Millman 2015; Robbins, 2016). However, there is growing concern over how consumers respond to these images, and what impacts they may have on the quality of health care. More specifically, the ads are increasing not only in number, but also in the pressure that they put on consumers. As a result, patients frequently seek alternative treatments, self-diagnose problems, and push doctors to prescribe specific brand name drugs, instead
Nowadays many advertisements of health products are placed on many satellite channels. These health products include medications. Accordingly, consumers may perceive these ads in a way that differs from physicians and each would have different attitudes. Previous studies have shown that physicians generally would be opposed to health care advertising for a number of reasons. For example, doctors might feel that medical professionals should eschew advertising because: "the public must be protected against fraudulent and unscrupulous promoters;" "advertising would lower the prestige of professionals in the public's eye;" and "it is an expense which would not necessarily
This complete summary of Dr. Andrew Weil’s book outlines the risks and benefits of reliance on medications on the above fourteen categories of medications that are most over-prescribed, overused, and misused. It
This article touches on what we discussed in class this evening (6/28), on how health care advertisement is everywhere now, and it never used to be. You would find the advertising in magazines, newspapers etc., but now it is all over television commercials (Super Bowl, Presidential debates), business lounges in airport terminals, elite magazines, etc. The drug companies used to advertise painkillers that would be prescribed to millions, now they focus on costlier drugs that may be prescribed to thousands. They stay away from items that may be boring and target big-ticket items (cancer care, joint replacements). The health care industry has spent $14 billion on advertising alone in 2014, that is a 20% increase since 2011. Hospitals ads