Americans and prescription drugs
The Mayo Clinic came out with a new study recently stating that seven out of ten Americans are on prescription medicines:
The study, published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, shows that seven out of 10 Americans take at least one prescription drug. The most commonly prescribed drug is antibiotics — taken by 17 percent of Americans — followed by antidepressants and opioids — each taken by 13 percent of Americans.
“Often when people talk about health conditions they’re talking about chronic conditions such as heart disease or diabetes,” study researcher Jennifer St. Sauver, Ph.D., who is a member of the Mayo Clinic Population Health Program, said in a statement. “However, the second most common prescription was for antidepressants — that suggests mental health is a huge issue and is something we should focus on. And the third most common drugs were opioids, which is a bit concerning considering their addicting nature.”
The other thing the study discovered was that women take more prescription drugs than men, which seems to imply that women are more mentally fragile than man. I have just a few comments to make.
Yes, the number of opioids used is concerning, but there’s no doubt that chronic pain is a fact of life for many people. My dad, who was riddled with arthritis and eventually died of cancer couldn’t tolerate opioids, and that was a damn shame. Between the arthritis and the cancer, his last 20 years were made miserable by pain. When he wasn’t working (and he worked hard), he slept, because that was his only respite from the chronic, nagging pain. As for my mom, I think she would have killed herself if she hadn’t finally been put on controlled dose opioids for pain. My parents’ examples show that (a) many opioids are necessary to enable people to function and (b) a larger elderly population means more opioid use.
As for regular medicines, I am sooo grateful for them. I take prescription medicines to control my migraines and thank God for them. I’m no longer in misery half the time, with that misery transforming into complete disability about a fifth of the time. Thanks to prescription meds, I’m fully functional and, every time I swallow one of those little pills, I give thanks.
Finally, regarding women and antidepressants, maybe women are more vulnerable to depression. Or maybe women are more likely to admit that they’re depressed and to seek help. In addition, to the extent that many antidepressant pills render people anorgasmic, maybe women are simply more willing to trade overall happiness for intermittent orgasms.
I know there’s a lot of drug abuse in the world. Before my Mom got into a managed care situation, she was abusing prescription pills quite badly. But the fact remains that, when used correctly, so many of today’s medicines dramatically improve health, happiness, and productivity.
