Posted by floatingbridge on January 30, 2011, at 16:05:12
In reply to Re: linkage, posted by linkadge on January 30, 2011, at 15:17:51
Absolutely, Link. It's insidious and leads to rather haphazard, poorly informed prescription practices of (fricken!) potent medications with some dangerous or at least harmful results.
This is one of the ways I feel medicine has been degraded on the doctor/patient interface. Docs are reduced to reading pamphlets, abstracts, and blocking time
out of overfilled schedules (oh, insurance
) to meet with med reps. In my experience, perfectly lovely people who
happen to be doctors are regularly prescribing medication they do not
understand. So I was happy you started this thread, not crediting you with particular insight into the phenomena--though I think your kickoff was a sterling example.(I have lots to say about this--sorry for the barrage. Not only am I having to
navigate for myself--w/the help of a great pdoc and PB--I remember how, as a child and young adult, doctors bungled or harmed my mother--her health was very complex. Once she had a heart
attack induced by by--oh crud, what's it called--dialysis at a shift change.)A good friend. I met her as she was completing her psychiatry degree. When she began work, she was sooo disenchanted by feeling like she had 15 mins per patient and her main job was to act as a gateway and gatekeeper for controlled substances. She despised the reps constant upbeat, white-teethed, highly sculpted smiles, and endless visits and pleasantries masking the pressure to adopt their meds as some panacea for all
her patients. Their gift baskets; buying
lunch for the office; so much food that she would take it home to her family rather than throw it away. And the
patients who really did abuse and would tell her anything. She'd have to protect herself. And them. She is very idealistic.I better stop here.
Best to you,
fb
*keep a green tree in your heart
& a singing bird will come.
MDD & C-PTSD
poster:floatingbridge
thread:978202
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110130/msgs/978303.html