The Problem Of Inappropriate Prescribing

Americans are now spending billions of dollars on psychiatric medications but according to Frances “We are ignoring the people who have severe psychiatric illness; so that, one-third of people with severe depression see a mental health clinician, two-thirds don’t. Two-thirds of people with severe depression get no treatment at all. At the same time, we’re way over-diagnosing people who have milder problems that would get better on their own.” Diagnosis can cause more harm than good when not really needed. We are over-treating those who don’t need treatment, while neglecting those who do.

Immanuel Kant is said by many to be one of the most influential “thinkers” in the history of Western philosophy (McCormick, n.d.), this being said, most of his theories continue to be taught and are highly respected by society. Kant was a firm believer that the morality of any action can be assessed by the motivation behind it (McCormick, n.d.). In other words, if an action is good but the intention behind the action is not good, the action itself would be considered immoral. Those who follow the utilitarian view would disagree, arguing that an action which benefits the most number of people would be considered moral regardless of the intentions behind it. Kant argues that the intention behind an action matters more than the number of people benefited. This theory of morality falls hand in hand with Kant 's concept of good will, and through examples I hope to explain to readers, in a simple way, what Kant was trying to convey.

Although we tend to think that drugs are here to comfort and heal people, we must also take into account that behind every drug, we have a drug company that is making millions of dollars off of consumers who by their products. Behind every consumer, we have a doctor that is recommending and prescribing the medication. In “The Medicated Child,” we learn that the researchers who advocate the use of psychiatric medications, receive enormous support from drug companies. Firsthand doctors inform us that theses drug industry funded studies influence their decisions on what drugs to “push” or prescribe. This is a major conflict of interest because the decisions and results of the studies are

Across the country, a steady increase has been noted in the number of patients presenting to emergency departments for psychiatric complaints (Zun, 2014). Patients also attempt to use their primary care doctors to treat their mental illnesses. The mental health care options for these patients are extremely limited, especially for minority populations such as African Americans and Hispanics. One out of four adults in America suffers from some form of mental illness, yet only one out of three of those affected receives treatment (Safran, 2009). Furthermore, patients are routinely misdiagnosed, receive poor quality of care, receive care from providers who have no understanding of their cultures and values, or are not even able to receive care in the first place (Sanchez, 2012).

We in America tend to take medications for almost any problem we have, from headaches to gastrointestinal pain, to more serious chronic disorders such as depression and attention deficit disorder. While many of the uses of such medications may be necessary and legitimate, many are not, and due to this fact, many people become dependent on medications, mentally, and or physically. This problem is not simply the fault of the individual; in fact, the blame can also be placed upon the medical community, and the pharmaceutical companies who produce the drugs. How often can one turn on the television to see advertisements for Claritin, Aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, or even Zoloft or Ritalin? The pharmaceutical industry is motivated by monetary

The following assignment will discuss and analyse a prescribing episode, within practice, furthermore will outline safe prescribing from the Nurse Prescribing Formulary (NPF, 2013-2015).To be able to analyse and reflect on my new role as Community Practitioner Nurse Prescriber (CPNP) I will use Gibbs (1988) reflective model and a structure that will allow the use of a consultation model (Appendix1,Fig1).

“Despite many calls for change, mental health care continues to be separate from the rest of health care. Difficulties in accessing mental health care have become a “de facto” in the US. Although screening for mental illness in primary care has increased in recent years, subsequent treatment remains inadequate and referral for specialty treatment continues to suffer from long delays. In the National Comorbidity Study, only 21.7% of individuals with major depressive disorder received adequate treatment (Grembowski, 2002).”

In the modern age of technological and medical advancements such as organ transplants and robotic limbs, Americans have developed unrealistic expectations about prescription drugs. The false belief that the right pill in the right dosage can cure all has led to a national epidemic: over prescription. Since the 1970s, the average American’s expenditure on prescription drugs has doubled because not only are new treatments for almost every ailment now available, but they are also aggressively advertised on television, the internet, and social media. At the same time that the American population confronts health issues associated with rising age, obesity, and stress levels, prescription drugs promise a quick fix for everything from depression to acne to insomnia leading to a one pill fix all.

The most imperative crucial peak of our psychiatric therapy is assessing right of entry to primary-care physicians underneath the health-care guideline. The motive for this meeting point is dual: foremost, we previously know that we will be in front of a primary-care scarcity in the impending existence, so accepting the position that Obamacare plays in affecting the deficiency is essential; subsequent, much of the law was aggravated by the quarrel that escalating access to reasonably priced or even free preventive and main care physicians would eventually corner the curvature of health-care

The questions that are hoped to be answer by the end of this research are the following: what are the chances of overdosing while taking antidepressants? Is therapy more efficient than medication when treating patients that have been diagnosed with depression?What causes chemical imbalances? When can therapy or medication become the best option for treatment for depression? Where is the best place to get therapy or a prescription for depression? Who can help patients get better? How can therapy be more useful and more helpful than medication? Why are there not any more options for mental illnesses? Would doctors admit to their preferences of treatment when dealing with patients that have been diagnosed with depression? Could medication lead to suicide for depression diagnosed patients? Should medication be treated as the first option for treatment against

There are many prescription medications that doctors prescribe to improve the health and lives of their patients. However, even drugs that come from doctors and pharmacies can be abused. As doctors around the country write more prescriptions, the number of people who abuse prescription drugs also increases.

Prescription drug abuse and misuse is becoming a major public health issue in the United

7. Kant’s ethics gives us firm standards that do not depend on results; it injects a humanistic element into moral decision making and stresses the importance of acting on principle and from a sense of duty. Critics, however, worry that (a) Kant’s view of moral worth is too restrictive, (b) the categorical imperative is not a sufficient test of right and wrong, and (c) distinguishing between treating people as means and respecting them as ends in themselves may be difficult in practice.

Kantian ethics emphasizes on two conditions for an action to be morally good. The first, that an action only has moral worth if it is done for the sake of duty. The second is that an action is considered right if its maxim can be willed as a universal law. Kantian ethics then is working on the basis of duty and universality. In failing to recognize the multiple aspects of morality, Kantian ethics shows inadequacy as a moral theory. (Hinman, 2008)

Kant uses an example of duty to try to explain the difference he sees in something being based on good will or not. The difference lies between a person merely doing his or her duty and doing it because it is her duty. Kant believes that good will is demonstrated only in the latter of the two situations. A person is not demonstrating good will when he or she knows it’s wrong but still does their duty. On the other hand, if a person were to do his or her duty knowing it is right and not expecting some sort of reward because of the performance of the duty, than this is considered true good will and being good. A nurse in the hospital setting would not be considered as having true good will since that nurse would be expected to be compensated for a job well done but on the