A Stimulating Blog

Recently I saw a patient who was over-treated with pharmaceutical drugs. She was on amphetamines and thyroid hormones to pick her up in the morning (she originally complained of fatigue) and sedatives and sleeping pills to bring her down in the evening.

Not surprisingly, this regimen only aggravated the fatigue and on top of it, it created a dependency on questionable and potentially addicting prescription drugs, which is quickly becoming a national problem. The latest disturbing report I saw about this was on CNN news the last week of September 2009. College students are popping Adderall, an amphetamine-like stimulant often prescribed for ADD, like it’s going out of style.

No doubt the diagnosis of ADD is legitimate in many patients, but, some practitioners use said diagnosis on practically any patient with the slightest fatigue or depression symptoms in order to justify the use of this questionable drug. Not infrequently, these practitioners justify this practice by arguing that “the patient wanted me to prescribe the drug.” Such self-deception requires no retort.

Please, do not fall for the indiscriminate use of thyroid hormones when the laboratory shows normal levels. Have you been told that the lab is not indicative of thyroid dysfunction? If you follow that logic, we would need to put everyone on thyroid hormone. The same applies to sex hormones, which are also abused, since they are also stimulants and have other steroid-like effects that in the long run end up overpaying the fiddler. HCG is another example of this irresponsible prescribing.

If you are presently victimized by any of these modes of practice, I hope you seek help from a responsible caregiver who will try to find the root of your health problems and get you off “the candy.”