By Dr Ananya Mandal
Consider this
- 40 million pills are taken by Australians each day
- Around 2 pills are taken per person (Men, women and even children) per day
- Are children also given too many pills? 10,000 children are prescribed antipsychotics in 2007-08.
- Prescription and use of drugs has gone up by 37% in the past 17 years
- $14.2 billion a year are spent each year on medicines
- $6.5 billion are spent each year on medicines from people’s pockets!
- 196 million prescriptions for subsidised medicines filled each year
- 300 million packs of vitamins, fish oils, headache and pain pills are purchased by Australians each year
Are Australians becoming more pill-dependent rather than focussing on a healthier lifestyle?
These reports have emerged from a Daily Telegraph investigation. Australian Medical Association vice president, GP and former Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee member Dr Steve Hambleton said the resons for these trends may include the increasing population of the aged, newer medicines as well as a rise in chronic lifestyle ailments like diabetes and high blood pressure. According to him, “There has been an explosion in the number of people who are diabetic and when you're diagnosed as diabetic you go from no pills to four pills overnight."