Comments on: Most Prescribed Medicines of 2008

By: Marie

Marie — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:18:21 +0000

I have Multiple Sclerosis AND a fractured shoulder. Because apparently just one of those would not have been enough. But I digress…

Add HTN and hypothyroidism and I am one of those people who at times can have up to 22 prescriptions, primarily for MS symptom relief and pain relief for my shoulder. Or when I developed shingles. I am on Tysabri, an immune suppressant, and shingles was a health crisis for me. Upped my usual count by another 3 prescriptions.

While it can be very demoralizing to have more medications than my 76 year old father, I am extremely grateful for the fact that I have these tools at my disposal to help keep me functioning and maintain some quality of life. The pain from my broken shoulder has been relentless and my orthopedic surgeon has never hesitated to attempt to control it. I take the pain relief medication judiciously and can safely say after a year and a half I do not have any dependency issues. I think I am paradoxically lucky in that the medication is not entirely effective, I still have significant pain that I address with relaxation and meditation. So perhaps being spared addiction has less to do with my own personal wonderfulness than with the fact that there’s nothing in it for me. lol

I do not envy the job physicians have in balancing what will relieve a patient’s symptoms without doing more harm in the end. But I am very appreciative of the fact I have the means, through these medications, to keep productive and to keep my symptoms manageable.

By: Chelle

Chelle — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:25:05 +0000

I have a huge file of info regarding prescription Rx’s information, use, and abuse. BELIEVE me when I tell you, THIS is out of control. YES meds are necessary at times, but if ONLY individuals would do research on what they are being prescribed, maybe just MAYBE things would change. Not all docs are incompetent, but when it comes to prescribing drugs many ARE. (Can you say residual income??) Many people also “doctor shop”. I am in the process of starting a support group for young people, to inform them on the issues of prescription drug use. Anti depressants are another issue as well. Again, I realize they are a must at times for a rare few. But often times the REASON an antidepressant is needed is due to pain medication use that has suddenly stopped…. And would soon pass in 10-14 days! FACT! AGAIN I REALIZE THERE ARE TIMES WHEN PRESCRIPTION DRUGS ARE A MUST. BUT NOT as often as they are PRESCRIBED!! If people would only do their research, take a stand, and realize that life is NOT supposed to be happy 100% of the time, that anxiety comes and goes, that depression often times is the cause of some other drug, that sadness is often CAUSED and NEEDS to be felt and dealt with, that the pressures we live under are what is called “life”, that only unbearable pain needs opiates, that being “high” is not how life is supposed to be lived, that students sometimes have late nights of studying and shouldn’t utilize pharmacuticals, etc….I could go on and on. I’m NOT being judgmental—I KNOW….I’ve EXPERIENCED….I’ve SEEN! My prayer is that I can make others, especially the young, aware of this disastrous, debilitating problem!

By: PalMD

PalMD — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:38:05 +0000

What I love about this list is how many very cheap and effective drugs are on it. Pricing for life-saving medications has dramatically improved over the last two years. Being able to rx an ACE, beta blocker, statin, and aspirin for under twenty bucks a month is a real boon to patients.

“Where’s your conspiracy theory now??”

By: David Harmon

David Harmon — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:04:15 +0000

It might also be worthwhile to separate out those drugs which are commonly prescribed on a long-term basis. My own “hit”, Effexor XR, is one of those — I’ve been taking it for quite a few years now.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:29:02 +0000

Why is Lisinopril listed at both #2 and #36? Different formulations?

drc – yes, forgot to write in the full chemical name, sorry.

By: K. Gregory

K. Gregory — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:09:15 +0000

“I just saw a patient with 22 daily medications…22!! 18 of them were a mind boggling array of “nerve pills” and pain pills. …..”
This finding is not suprising to us who live day to day in the trenches of primary care. We have to trust that the patient is there with a valid complaint, a real concern, a worsening sense of belonging or a longing notion of complete unrest. The history is all that we have (in the beginning) combined with a thorough PE; in just 5 of the alloted 15 minutes per complaint. So, again, we must go into the visit headon with a positive frame of mind- cycle through the diff dx- r/o the ones that just don’t fit and end up treating the most likely set of sx that fit a particular dx. Simple. Flip this on it’s ear, and pull the plug on trust… what’s left?

By: Poster

Poster — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:22:15 +0000

I just saw a patient with 22 daily medications…22!! 18 of them were a mind boggling array of “nerve pills” and pain pills. The patient did not want to even consider discontinuing some of them – although they were prescribed by a primary care doc, which I am not.
I wonder if modern medicine is creating a huge population of pharmacologic addicts.