The Effects Of Prescription Drugs On The Patient 's Doctor Or Parent?

Drug overdose from medications designed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are on the rise. This is likely due to an overwhelming amount of children, nearly 3 million, prescribed medication for ADHD each year (Spiller, Hays, & Aleguas, 2013). ADHD affects nearly 10% of the national population and is rising due to newer diagnostic criteria (Levine, et al., 2013). In the past, ADHD was only diagnosed in school aged children, but new studies suggest that diagnosis can be made in the preschool age as well (Levine, et al., 2013). Because of the new age criteria affecting more young children, the number of prescription of ADHD drugs will rise each year which will increase the amount of ADHD prescription overdose (Adis, 2014).

to unnecessarily overprescribe medications to their pediatric patients. Of these prescription drugs, opioid pain killers, antibiotics, and psychiatric medications are the most commonly overprescribed in child care. For example, opioid prescriptions have increased 300 percent in the past seventeen years (Boerner 20), over 50 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions are written each year (Murray 266), and 6.4 million psychiatric prescriptions are given to children between the ages of four and seventeen each year (Johnson 19). The overprescribing of these medications leads to children experiencing unnecessary side effects, increases the chances of addictions, and encourages drug resistance. In this essay, I will be proposing that there should be a (i) government enforced set of extensive regulations and checklists that each patient must fulfill before receiving a prescription and (ii) governmental laws prohibiting careless prescribing by doctors and hold doctors more accountable for the prescriptions they write.

Prescribed medication is on the rise in the United States. Particularly among the elderly as they are more inclined to be taking medications. According to the textbook, about thirty percent of people who are sixty-five or older take eight or more prescriptions daily. (Snyder, 62) With that comes an increase in medication misuse and abuse. The difference between the two has to do with the intentions or motivations the person has. Medication misuse is an unintentional or willful use of a medication in a way that differs from prescribed dose or intent. (Snyder, 61) The first example found in the textbook includes taking several unused antibiotics for strep throat from last years prescription, thinking the sore throat is strep throat. The second example is a person who takes a double dose of Tylenol, thinking the higher dose will clear the symptoms faster. The last example from the book is failing to take entire course of antibiotics prescribed for them. (Snyder, 61) On the other hand, medication abuse is deliberately taking a drug for non-medical reason. For example, taking a prescription medicine that was prescribed to someone else, taking the medicine in a different form such as snorting it, or taking a certain medicine with the intent to get high. Both medication abuse and misuse in the elderly population is of concern on the grounds that it can bring mental and physical debilitation. Older people misusing or abusing medications puts them at greater danger and may lead to

The very same items a doctor prescribes to help people get well might be making them sick. Prescription drugs are being taken for reasons other than the ones they are being prescribed for, fueling an addiction that impacts as many as 48 million Americans ("Prescription Drug Abuse" WebMD). According to MedLinePlus, "an estimated 20 percent of people in the United States have used prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons. This is prescription drug abuse." While a considerable amount of time, resources, and attention are focused on the problems associated with illicit drugs, prescription drug abuse is "an increasing problem," with very serious consequences for individuals, families, and communities (MayoClinic Staff). The United States Office of National Drug Control Policy claims, "Prescription drug abuse is the Nation's fastest-growing drug problem, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified prescription drug abuse as an epidemic." Because prescription drugs are viewed as safe due to their being part of the doctor's pharmacopeia, the same psychological, legal, ethical, and social barriers to abuse might not be present. However, prescription drug abuse creates a wide range of problems, including dangerous or lethal side effects, long-term addiction, and the dismantling of family and community

Most people are familiar with prescription medications; almost everyone has taken them at one point or another during their lifetime. Not all prescription drugs are addicting, but a large number of them are. Prescription drug abuse is a disease that has become a major problem in the United States, which affects over six-million Americans. Prescription drug abuse not only affects the individual, but can additionally have far-reaching consequences that affect family, personal health, employment, communities and society as a whole. Research has shown that at least 10% of people prescribed an addictive medication will become dependent on the medicine. Due to prescription drug abuse, states are beginning to monitor doctors who prescribe certain medications, more closely, which may scare some physicians away from prescribing helpful medications to people who truly need them.

The purpose of medicine is as contested of a notion as the term patient. While there are certain ends in which it is clear that medicine seeks to achieve, controversy often arises over how medicine chooses to achieve these certain goals. One such controversy is the treatment of patient-symptoms, more specifically, the role of medication in treating patients. The purpose of this essay is not to discuss the general issues of prescribing medication. Rather, the purpose is

Prescription medications are intended to help individuals not create new problems. When an individual is diagnosed with ADHD they often seek medical attention. Medication will often be prescribed to help this individual manage their ADHD symptoms. However, many of the medications used to treat ADHD are stimulants. These stimulants can have adverse effects on the human body. There are hidden dangers when using ADHD medications such as side effects, addiction, and classification.

The Mayo Clinic, a world-renowned education, research, and health facility estimates that over 70% of American rely on at least one prescription drug to treat some form of medical condition. In reality, many of these people rely on multiple prescription drugs to sustain their lives, like drugs to reduce their high blood pressure.

Prescription drug abuse has been around since doctors started prescribing medication, but widespread prescription drug abuse and addiction has only surfaced in the last 20 years or so. Unfortunately because these drugs are continued to be abuse widely, there are concerns for physicians who are legitimately prescribing these medications to patients who truly need them. However there are doctors who recklessly prescribe these drugs to unknowing patients who form addictions to them. Prescription medications commonly abused include opioids often prescribed to treat pain, central nervous system depressants used to treat anxiety, and stimulants used for the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) as well as some sleeping disorders.

For example, in Nicholas DuPerret’s case his parents opted not to put him on medication, seeing it as just a quick fix that did not treat what was wrong with their son in the long run. Meanwhile, Noelle Demo was put on medication and her grades increased while her aggressive behavior decreased; this was seen as a “godsend” by her parents. However, doctors sometimes use medication to treat the symptoms of an illness rather than treating the root cause of it. This could be why doctors a prescribing more and more medications to children.

Today millions of American cildren are being prescribed potent behavioral modification drugs such as Ritalin and Prozac. According to the investigaation from the Frontline video "Medicating Kids" (2001) rapiidly growing use of psychoactive drugs on children and the long term effects it has on both parents and children. The video shows an intimate portrait of several families in an American suburb and the many ways medication

Being a pediatric operating room nurse, I often take care of patients who are diagnosed with ADHD and is undergoing medical and behavioral treatments for their disorder. In my ten years of nursing experience, I have not encountered a patient who has misused, abused, or diverted their stimulant prescription, or at least not that I know of or it is not noted in their charts. According to Harstad and Levy (2014), misuse and diversion (i.e. giving away, trading, or selling) of stimulant medications are more widespread problems than abuse or addiction. Although methylphenidate and amphetamine both have abuse potential, there is very little evidence that these medications are abused by the patient to whom they are prescribed for. Moreover, about 16-23% of school-aged children have reported that they have been approached to by another person to give, sell, or trade their prescription stimulant (Harstad & Levy, 2014). Friends and family members are the most frequent source of diverted medications (Harstad & Levy, 2014).

Right now, at this very moment, somewhere in America, there is a commercial playing, advertising a prescription drug, while a family sits around and watches it or subconsciously takes in what the commercial has to offer while they stare at the bright screens of their cellular phones. The widespread media of prescription medicines, specifically amphetamines, sedatives, and tranquilizers, allow pills like ‘Xanax’ (a tranquilizer used to treat depression), Zoloft (antidepressant), or Adderall (a medication used to treat ADHD) to become trusted, widely known, household names.

My father, Donald Baker, has had a problem with prescription drugs in the past. Being prescribed various amounts of drugs throughout his life, he has built a dependency and addiction on these prescriptions. With this instability, you can see the element of reciprocity. Reciprocity is the term that explains the aspect that when one part of a system changes, this change affects the other parts of the system. Moreover, when my dad was dealing with his addiction to prescription drugs, this addiction really affected the rest of the family.

Antibiotics are chemical substances that can kill or inhibit the growth of infectious microorganism. They could be naturally occurring or synthetic in a laboratory. Each type of infection has its therapeutic course duration which should be completed neither reduced nor overused. The long term use of antibiotics may harm the host. In addition to the impact of antibiotic on infectious organism, they can affect the non-infectious bacteria. These effect on non-infectious bacteria depend on the type of used antibiotic, its mechanism of action and resistance level among community. Different antibiotics affect the normal gut bacteria in diverse ways depending on several the antibiotic spectrum of activity, dose and duration of therapeutic course, administration route and characteristics of the