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Americans are known all over the world for their drive to excess. Our medical industry is no exception. From antibiotics to pain killers to drugs for hyperactivity, our doctors are over-prescribing medications for millions of people each year. These practices affect each and every one of us by raising insurance costs and complicating hundreds of medical issues each year.

The drug industry in America pays hundreds of millions of dollars every year to doctors in return for giving their patients certain prescribed medicines. Documents given to the New York Times show that at just one practice in the Pacific Northwest, a group of six cancer doctors received $2.7 million from the drug company Amgen for prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year. This is only one instance of many of the alarming practice of over-prescription.

These big payments are not the only reason Americans are being given too much or unneeded medication. In the U.S., the average primary care doctor spends an average of six minutes with each patient. This is hardly enough time to listen carefully to the patients concerns as well as review the patient's chart and note what other medications he or she might already be taking. This lack of time spent with the patient often causes multiple prescriptions to be taken for years without a physician regularly evaluating whether or not each prescription is actually still needed. Often this also results in conflicting medications being prescribed, causing unwanted side effects and health problems.

If you've ever felt that your doctor was giving you a prescription just to make you feel like he or she was doing something for your predicament, you might be right. Antibiotics are the most often over-prescribed drug in America. Even though there is no cure for the common cold caused by virus, many doctors continue to indiscriminately prescribe antibiotics, even when they know it will do no good. In fact, 48% of doctors in the U.S. said "they have given at least one treatment when there was no evidence it would work."

Over-prescribing has become big business in America. Make sure you check with your primary care physician on a regular basis to ensure that each and every drug you are taking is absolutely needed. Also request that your doctor recommend alternative treatments if possible. Keeping your doctor in check will safeguard you from being one of many over-prescribed Americans.

Learn more about this author, Jennifer Brister.
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