Posted by ron1953 on May 10, 2012, at 10:35:49
In reply to an opinion, posted by Dinah on May 10, 2012, at 9:10:35
> I do think that doctors should stop prescribing SSRI's like candy, with the assumption that they are the least harmful of the psych meds and you might as well start with them.
>
> Anxious? Don't want to prescribe a nasty addictive benzo or a scary AP. At least an SSRI won't hurt and might help.
>
> Depressed? Well, there might be situational factors, but it can't hurt to give an SSRI and might help.
>
> That kind of thinking is wrong. SSRI's are not harmless to certain subsets of patients, and doctors need to be more discriminating. Doctors are just too fond of having a first line course of treatment for any presenting condition.
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And that goes to the newer ways medical practices work, what with harried doctors cramming in as many 10-minute visits as possible in a day, and this includes many of what you folks refer to as "pdocs". Regardless of the patient's condition, most doctors do not spend enough time to properly address the ENTIRE patient. Such is the corporatization of American medicine.I don't have any studies or statistics to cite, but I do know that there is a sizable number of people who are taking unnecessary medications and/or are over-medicated.
The other side of the coin is patients having unrealistic expectations about what doctors can actually do, or those who think doctors are some sort of gods.
I like to remind myself of an old riddle:
Q: What do you call somebody who graduated at the bottom of their medical school class?
A: "Doctor"
poster:ron1953
thread:1017459
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120508/msgs/1017633.html