It’s Monday, so it’s time for another infographic. You may remember this one and this one from a few months ago, and so I’m posting yet another from the folks who put them together. To be sure, I’m not posting this to voice my opposition to the use of medication. There’s a time and place for the use of all medications, but frequently they are treated as the only option, which they’re not. As we progress through the 21st century, we’re seeing more and more shortcomings of the 1950′s dream of ‘better living through chemistry,’ and as the pendulum swings back, I’m hoping we can find a happy medium.

I also want to point out that medications are only a symptom of a larger problem. Physicians simply need more time with patients. -based medicine is a product of this time crunch, as it’s relatively easy to choose one in a short period of time, and patients walk away feeling that at least the doctor ‘did something.’ Moving away from over-medication will take changes in the way insurance works, in the way we live, and in the way we eat, to name but a few. It’s not going to be simple, but as a species, we’ve repeatedly shown that we can solve some pretty big problems when we set our minds to them. Let’s see if we can sort this one out.

Overmedicated America

 

Created by: MBACC.net