World of Psychology

Are we taking too many drugs?

By John M Grohol PsyD
April 19, 2005

Are we taking too many drugs?

About 130 million Americans - many far healthier than the Heckmans - swallow, inject, inhale, infuse, spray and pat on prescribed medication every month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates. Americans buy much more medicine per person than any other country.

The number of prescriptions has swelled by two-thirds over the past decade to 3.5 billion yearly, according to IMS Health, a pharmaceutical consulting company. Americans devour even more nonprescription drugs, polling suggests.


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3 Comments to
“Are we taking too many drugs?”

Hello There:

My husband has congestive heart failure and chronic bronchitis. He has been going to a lung specialist and a heart specialist and it seems all they do is poke more drugs at him. He is now in the hospital because of fibrilation. I have researched all the drugs he is taking and I know, even though I realize every drug has side affects, that he is taking too many. I cannot believe that some of the combinations are doing more harm than good and are probably building up toxins in his body. He has also had angioplasty in his left leg, in his heart for four blocked arteries and surgery to clean out his right carodid artery which was almost completely blocked. He still needs the left one done (70-80 percent blocked) and they say they can put stents in this one and not be as invasive as the surgery.W

What I would like to find is a legitimate web site? to find out if he should be taking ALL these drugs, if he is taking too many, and the possible consequences of those he is taking. Doctors tend to get their nose in a snit or look at you like you should mind your own business, you aren’t a doctor. My husband of 52 years means everything to me and just because he is 74, I don’t feel he’s ready to be written off yet! Thanks, Dolly

MY BOY FRIEND IS ON DRUGS AND HE WENT TO JAIL FOR TEN YEARS AND I HAD A BABY BY HIM WHAT DO I DO

SOME PEOPLE IN MY FAMILY SMOKE AND I KEEP TELLING TO STOP AND I WANT TO BAND TABACCO FROM MISSOURI SO I NEED HELP WITH THIS IF ANY BODY WANT THE SAME YOU CAN WRITE ME BACK BECAUSE I DONT WANT NO ONE TO DIE BECAUSE OF THAT

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 19 Apr 2005

 


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