Your doctor and the pills you do not need

Britain hypochondriacs are increasing so rapid that Health Service prescriptions are rising by huge amount a year and 4,000 million aspirin tablets are being bought over the chemist’s counters.

To find out the solution to the above problem, the case record of more than 500 hypochondriacs attending different hospitals have been studied. The commonest symptoms of the hypochondriac is not fear of pain, but genuine itself, which can be just as unpleasant whether imaginary or touched off by organic disorder.

Doctors conclude in this report that though those persons are real enough there is no such disease as hypochondria. Contrary to previous belief, compulsive pill swallowing turned out to be as common among men as with women.

Many hypochondriacs do not want to be deprived of their obsession. They know they will miss the sympathy of the doctors, the pleasure of trying out the next new pill, and the fascination of talking about their fears and illnesses.

The risk of adverse reactions of any drug was always present but in the past much had been left to chance in the hope that such effects would be reported by people who took the preparation.

There is also a good deal of trouble from injudicious and sometimes excessive prescribing. This includes the taking of drugs prescribed for somebody else. Besides many patients, particularly people overseas, were using many years after they had been made.