Drugs, legal and illegal, have always been big business, earning trillions for the legitimate manufacturers and suppliers – and no one knows how much for internationally organised crime gangs and small-time dealers. Numerous prescription drugs work miracles for millions, dramatically improving the quality of life and prolonging life itself. Is there, though, particularly as we get older, a danger that we take too many prescription drugs? Some are vital, although doubters would question that, even with drugs such as cholesterol-reducing statins. But what of that multicoloured, multi-sized collation we painstakingly line up on our bedside tables every evening, or methodically count into our convenient “Monday to Sunday” marked containers each morning – do we really need them all?
That pill for pain management or the ones for backache, anxiety, gastric reflux or mild depression, or that one particular pill that helps us sleep, eventually – are they all truly necessary, or even beneficial, in the longer term? Are some of us, in effect, addicted to our prescriptions drugs? It may be easier to ask your doctor, if you can get to see your doctor, for another repeat prescription, rather than explain why you feel you no longer need a particular drug. More convenient all round, perhaps, to stay on it and keep it nearby – just in case. Then, at the first sign of a problem returning, the drug is comfortingly at hand.
Doctors are under unprecedented pressure to prioritise patients most in need. So, some might argue, it’s simpler and quicker for them as well to issue a repeat prescription, especially if the pills prescribed are judged to be harmless. In the UK, the ability to prescribe prescription-only medicines is restricted to qualified health professionals, including GPs, hospital doctors, some nurses, pharmacists and paramedics. The introduction of physician associates (PAs), who spend just two years in training, is designed for them to assist doctors, but always under their supervision. Reports suggest that rules are already being abused, even to the extent of some PAs writing prescriptions. With around 10,000 more PAs due in the coming years, might it become easier still for patients to obtain drugs they don’t need, and therefore increase the risk of addiction?
