{"id":2077,"date":"2011-06-13T21:45:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T01:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.willclower.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/doctors-tell-doctors-not-to-be-so-pill-happy.html"},"modified":"2016-09-21T09:04:35","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T13:04:35","slug":"doctors-tell-doctors-not-to-be-so-pill-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2077","title":{"rendered":"Doctors Tell Doctors Not To Be So Pill Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. doctors are too quick to reach for their prescription pads, according to a new report urging them to think more about side effects and non-drug alternatives.<\/div>\n

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“Instead of the latest and greatest, we want fewer and more time-tested drugs<\/i>,” said Dr. Gordon Schiff, associate director of the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a non-profit organization that studies ways to improve safe practices in healthcare.<\/span><\/div>\n

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“We are really trying to promote a different way of thinking about practicing,” added Schiff, whose report appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine<\/b><\/i>.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Why Is This An Issue?<\/b><\/u> <\/span><\/div>\n
Nearly half of all Americans have used at least one prescription drug in the past month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and experts say overprescribing is rampant.<\/span><\/div>\n

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By definition, that means people are being exposed to side effects, sometimes fatal, without the benefits that would justify those risks.<\/span><\/div>\n

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“Often what is really bothering them is not cured with a pill, but rather through exercise, physical therapy, or diet changes,” Schiff told Reuters Health.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Yet many doctors are quick to prescribe a drug, partly because they have limited time to deal with individual patients or because they and their patients have been bombarded with ads from the pharmaceutical industry.<\/span><\/div>\n

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