Sunday, September 2, 2012

Who Should Be Prescribing Our Pills?

As with anything in the business world, medicine has its own specialties.  This is for a reason.  It is impossible for an orthopedic surgeon to do say, “open heart surgery.” The same holds true for our medications.

Certain specialists are experts at certain medications and have a greater knowledge of them.  I fear a general
practitioner, for instance, does not have the expertise for prescribing antidepressants.  Shouldn’t it be a psychiatrist prescribing these medications?  The same holds true for antiepileptic medications, which should be prescribed by a neurologist, someone who is astute at and specializes in looking for neurological clues.  I challenge anyone to get their podiatrist to prescribe something for a cold. So, why are all of these medications being thrown around as though they are candy placebos?

We now know that chronic pain of any sort requires a multimodal approach.  Shouldn’t this include specialists to prescribe medications for a particular disease or problem? 

Maybe we should ask why classifications for these drugs are what they are.  Why aren’t they classified as analgesics, if that is truly what they are made of?  Maybe we should ask our doctor what they know about the medications they are prescribing, what to watch for, and what to report. Just some points to ponder.

All blogs, posts and answers are based on the work in Integrative Therapies for Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Myofascial Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Celeste Cooper, RN, and Jeff Miller, PhD. 2010, Vermont: Healing Arts press and are not meant to replace medical advice.  www.thesethree.com

Author of Chapter Five, Living with and Coping Effectively Through Fibromyalgia: Detecting Barriers, Understanding the Clues, in Fibromyalgia Insider Secrets: 10 Top Experts, 2nd Ed. Ebook complies by Deirdre Rawlings, ND, PhD

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