BBC SHOW HIGHLIGHTS ISSUE OF OVER-PRESCRIPTION OF DRUGS

Professor Muir Gray, former NHS Head of Knowledge, has described an ‘epidemic’ of over-prescription of pharmaceutical drugs. In a BBC television programme that aired in two parts back in October, Dr Chris van Tulleken explored this issue. The show was called ‘The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs’.

One of the things we learnt from this show was that 5 million people in the UK are on anti-depressants and that the rate of us by teenagers has doubled since 2009. We also learnt that prescriptions for painkilling drugs have increased by a quarter in the last five years.

Van Tulleken visited a GP practice in London with 14,000 people on its books which manages to provide 200,000 prescriptions a year. Working with some of the patients at this practice, he explored alternatives to medication that would work better for the people. He prescribed instead cold water swimming for depression, swapping painkillers for placebos, and a martial arts class for a woman with degenerating immobility and chronic pain. There were many success stories resulting from such unorthodox approaches.

In fairness to the GPs, it was clear that a lot of the pressure to prescribe comes from the patients themselves. It was also revealed how difficult it can be for a GP to find out the root cause of a problem in a ten-minute appointment, thus leading them to treat symptoms rather than causes.

All-in-all, it was a very thought-provoking piece of television and hopefully revealed to some people the benefits of exercise, lifestyle, and drug-free healthcare with medication resorted to primarily as a last resort.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07w52tp