Drugs abused and misused
A young girl goes to the hospital because she is running a high fever and has flu like symptoms, upon arrival tests are run and the diagnoses is made. The doctor on call gives the girl a prescription and sends her on her way. The following day the symptoms are no better, her fever is higher, and she now has a rash. The cause of the higher fever and newly discovered rash is not from the disease she was diagnosed with, but the rash and fever are a result of inappropriate prescribing. If the doctor had paid closer attention to what he had been doing the girl would not have the rash and her symptoms would be lessened. This doctor prescribed a drug that the young girl was allergic to and that reacted with her disease. If the doctor had read over her charts with more precision and know the effects and reactions of the drug he was prescribing this child would have had a speedy recovery. This happens to all different kinds of people every day. The next time you go to the docto!r think about and even question whether your doctor has read your chart well enough to know your history and if he has been properly educated on the effects and reactions of the drug he is prescribing you. Drug abuse is a gr
ason the doctor may not tell a patient the side effects or reactions of a drug. However, those who are left in the dark may be experiencing the side effects of the drug but are unable to identify if they are part of the disease or a new reaction to the drug. The people who are left unaware of the side effects and reactions of the drug would not know the difference between the drug symptoms and the disease symptoms because they would not know what to look for. According to Getting the Most for Your Medical Dollar, a study conducted of 203 consumers at an outpatient clinic concluded that the people who were not informed did not report experiencing the side effects and reactions of the drugs they were taking simply because they did not know what they were or what to look for. The study also discovered that the patients who experienced the side effects did not have an increased chance for experiencing them, but rather they new what to look for and were thus able to report them ! "At Least Six Million Elderly were Prescribed Inappropriate drugs in 1987." Consumer's Research Magazine Sept.1994: 40. Randolph C Watson. Lib. Kilgore TX. Sept. 2000. CD-ROM. EBSCO. 2000. ld result in instant death if the drug the patient overdosed on was one of the 16 that were wrong ("Overdoses: What Your Doctor's Don't Know" 15). However, perhaps the largest problem of inadequate or incorrect information lies with drug salesmen, advertisements, and manufacturers. According to the Augusta Chronicle 20% of nursing home patients in a study conducted were prescribed drugs that were inappropriate for their diagnoses. The inappropriate prescribing could be attributed to the misleading information that doctors receive. Doctors receive their information on the effects and reactions of drugs from the salesmen who produce the drug and magazine articles written by the drug producers. Most doctors feel as though the information given by salesmen and advertisements are the most correct and most helpful in prescribing. Advertisements and salesmen favor the drug they are trying to pitch to the doctor because, lets face it, they get paid if the drug sells and when ! Williamson, Barbara. Personal Interview. 9 Oct. 2000. "RX For Doctors: Inform Consumers About Side Effects." Getting the Most for Your Medical Dollar Aug. 1995: 1. Randolph C Watson. Lib. Kilgore TX. Sept. 2000. CD-ROM. EBSCO. 2000. Medical Society highlights this point when they found that 92% of 109 ads viewed form 10 different medical journals in 1990 violated the FDA regulations and would have been caught if the ad had been read more carefully ("What Your Doctor Knows Could Be Wrong" 1). "Dangerous Prescribing Reduced with Education." Health Facts Aug. 1992: 2. Randolph C Watson. Lib. Kilgore TX. Sept. 2000. CD-ROM. EBSCO. 2000. owing problem today. Though we are more familiar with intentional drug use by a person, people are abusing drugs in the medical field every day. The patients who are being abused by drug misuse may not even know they are a victim. Doctors, nurses, and caregivers under medicate, overmedicate, and prescribe inappropriate medication to patients in hospitals, doctor's offices, and nursing homes everyday both intentionally and unintentionally, though most of the time the mistakes made is unintentional. Doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes are all creditable institutions of people who at one point or another misused or abused drugs. Drug abuse by doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes is a direct result of inadequate education on the interactions and effect! Oftentimes drug abuse by doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes can be attributed to faulty systems. Faulty systems are usually a result of overworked staff. Barbara Williamson, Certified Ombudsman for the Area Agency on Aging, said that most nursing home employees are overworked and understaffed because nurses and nurse aids aren't easy to find. Williamson added that long shi
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Approximate Word count = 3214
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)
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