The Panacea Cycle

With many medicines, we see what I call the panacea cycle. Something is found that cures something; everyone gets excited about it and starts prescribing it; it gets used everywhere, including inappropriately; the inappropriate uses create unwanted side effects and fail to solve the underlying problem; the substance is seen as dangerous and goes out of style.

This happened with Prozac, with Effexor, and with many other drugs, especially the psychotropics. The reason is simple. Cure does not mean panacea. To prescribe a drug inappropriately is to endanger the client. And one thing that we are seeing now, after the pharmaceutical lobbies got psychiatrists to prescribe, frequently completely inappropriately, dangerous and expensive multi-drug combinations that have been found to cause failed health or death, is just how much the unwanted side effects can damage people when inappropriate drugs are prescribed.

Of course the misuses of the medicine do not mean that the medicine is not valid for certain conditions. There are very much cases in which the drugs are appropriately used; but it is their inappropriate uses that lead them to be seen as source of danger. And the way to make sure that drug stays on the market is to only prescribe it where it is in fact the solution rather than where it is not the solution or where it leads to bigger problems.

There must be intelligence in how the drug is prescribed in order to avoid the panacea cycle. It is wrong to prescribe drugs inappropriately, and doing so not only endangers clients but sets in force the dynamics that lead to the drug being banned. There are no panaceas, but there are specific cures for different problems. Avoiding panacea mentality allows the substances to have longer shelf lives and keeps their makers from being sued class-action or being forced into bankruptcy.