Proscribing Ever More Pills Is Bad for the Public’s Health

December 17, 2014

(The Guardian) – Last week, we learned that 43% of men and 50% of women in England are taking at least one prescription medication. Of those surveyed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, 22% of men and 24% of women are taking at least three. In England alone, 2.7m prescription items are dispensed every day, adding up to a total cost of £15bn a year. Is this a success story – that more people are living longer is at least in part due to pharmaceuticals – or a case of too much medicine prescribed too liberally?