There are many problems with prescribing antidepressants when there could be an alternative solution.
Is there anything wrong with prescribing it merely as a placebo?
"There is usually an obsession with prescribing specific functions to dedicated rooms in healthcare buildings," says Henley.
A surgeon was charged with prescribing excessive drugs to a disabled patient to hasten his death and harvest his organs for transplantation.
In Berkeley, Dr. Lonny Shavelson bristles each time he hears a doctor talk about discomfort with prescribing end-of-life medication.
He was also cited for failing to adequately "ensure proper patient treatment" in connection with prescribing hormones, including steroids.
Yesterday's verdict is the first in which a doctor has been found guilty of manslaughter in connection with prescribing OxyContin, a time-released narcotic that has been widely abused.
Girls needing the drug have been able to get it immediately under the supervision of doctors or nurse practitioners with prescribing ability.
The lawyer for a surgeon charged with prescribing excessive drugs to a disabled patient to speed up his death and harvest his organs says his client has been the subject of a "witch hunt".
(Following a bioethical standard going back to St Thomas Aquinas, however, Catholics are fine with prescribing painkillers and other palliative drugs that will hasten death, just as long as it is a side-effect rather than the primary intent).
This shift is not just happening within OT; marks of it can be seen across healthcare, for example with prescribing physiotherapists, and speech and language therapists working on youth offender programmes.
