APBP Article Oasis

Is Psychiatry Replacing Psychology?

Pharmaceuticals are big business. From the prominence of drug manufacturers in the stock market to the scores of prescriptions dealt each day by physicians across the nation, pharmaceuticals touch most Americans through illness, injury or enhancement. One area where the prescribing of drugs has seen major increases over the last several years can be found is in traditionally psychological treatment. From attention deficit disorder medications to selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, few problems associated with the mind are left to time or discussion.

Many problems associated with the mind can be better treated through medication, but not all problems benefit from their use. Still, the psychiatric community as a whole can’t be blamed entirely for the increase in prescriptions used to help with depression, anxiety and other illnesses. Pharmaceutical giants and the medical community as a whole have as much or more of responsibility for the change in practice.

Undoubtedly, depression is a medical illness that can have a crippling effect on certain individuals at various points in their lives. Of equal importance is the fact that almost everyone, for one reason or another, experiences depression at some juncture. When the medical establishment fails to distinguish between serious bouts of depression such as postpartum, debilitating, and suicidal depression with simple, everyday depression, patients are more likely to be unnecessarily medicated.

For their part, pharmaceutical companies have done their best to ensure that the public is more accepting of medication as the first line of treatment. Advertisements offer pills for every possible malady to an eager public, made even more eager by the promise of instant relief from whatever ails them. This is not only a problem with psychological based issues, but with medicine in general.

The tendency to over-prescribe antibiotics has resulted in new, resistant strains of life threatening bacteria. Even over the counter products unrelated to medicine have been created and marketed in an effort to play upon public fears for increased product sales. Antibacterial soap will stop the majority of germs that can cause illness, but so will the plain old soap people have been using for centuries before it.

Ultimately, it’s in the hands of the physician to make the right decision for their patient. Therapy patients who insist on being referred to a psychiatrist or related M.D. with the intent of being prescribed medication are entitled to as many opinions as they want, but until the psychiatric community as a whole becomes less willing to accommodate those who could be helped without medication yet still request it, the problem is only going to get worse.

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Baby Boomer Generation Faces Healthcare Crisis They Created

The baby boomer generation is well known for many things, from negatives such as mass self indulgence, the tendency to think the world revolved around them and inflated self worth to positives such as the civil rights and gender equality movements and…well, the civil rights and gender equality movements. They may soon, however, be better known for bankrupting the healthcare system. Me, me, me has become old, old, old, and many experts are wondering how the mass influx of aging baby boomers will be dealt with by an already overtaxed healthcare system.

The baby boomer generation brought us the malpractice lawsuit, and while malpractice suits are sometimes necessary, the current healthcare climate resulting from widespread frivolous instances of malpractice claims has created doctor shortages nationwide. Why go to medical school only to find that insurance costs are prohibiting you from making a living commensurate with the education you worked so hard to get? There was a time when most gynecologists were also practicing obstetricians. Many are now no longer in the delivery business because of the hassle and skyrocketing expense of being protected from those who are looking for a quick paycheck.

Of course, not all healthcare system maladies can be attributed directly to the baby boomer generation. Many can be attributed to corporate greed, a staple of the baby boomer generation. HMO and other healthcare insurance plans have become so convoluted and rigid that having an ambulance drop you off at the wrong hospital can result in astronomical uncovered expenses despite the severity of a person’s injuries.

So, perhaps the baby boomer generation facing a healthcare crisis of their own making is poetic justice. There is an upside, however, in that baby boomers have finally given something besides a 50% divorce rate, partisanship and economic turmoil to the generations that proceeded them. By simply growing old, they have created new job opportunities in the field of medicine. While today’s college students have few degree options they can truly count on to provide for themselves and their future families, medicine is a safe bet for the future.

Looking for an educational path that will provide solid employment? Consider nursing, health care administration or perhaps respiratory therapy. It may no longer be worth the trouble to go to medical school, but there are careers in healthcare that offer better job stability that most other available options. For that, we have the baby boomers to thank.