HealthSmart: Prescription Drugs

• Keira McGuire
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Keira McGuire is a health reporter and multimedia producer for WITF. She hosts and produces Transforming Health television programs as well as other shows and documentaries for WITF’s Original Productions. McGuire produced the Emmy Award winning series HealthSmart for the last ten years. Keira previously worked at WBFF in Baltimore and WMDT in Salisbury as a reporter and anchor. She’s a graduate of Towson University.

 

Prescription drug use among Americans is increasing. According to the Mayo Clinic, about 70 percent of Americans are taking at least one prescription drug and more than half are taking at least two medications. In fact, the majority of doctor’s appointments today involve drug therapy.

The number of people taking prescription medication isn’t the only figure that’s growing. Prescription drug abuse is now considered the fastest growing drug problem in the United States.

Why are patients filling so many prescriptions and why are doctors feeling the need to prescribe? On HealthSmart: Prescription Drugs we’ll take a look at how we got to this point and we’ll examine possible solutions.