Carey, Benedict. "Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans' Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017. <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/health/psychiatric-drugs-prescriptions.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront>.
The article I read called, “Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans’ Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs,” talks about the rise in the use of psychotropic drugs among retirement age Americans. Recently there has been research done showing that many doctors are prescribing unnecessary psychotropic drugs to older Americans. The author states, “Earlier research has found that elderly people are more likely to be on at least one psychiatric drug long term than younger adults, even though the incidence of most mental disorders declines later in life.” A recent study showed that office visits by people 65 or older that resulted in prescribing of at least three of a list of psychiatric, sleep and pain medication, increase from 2.5 million in 2004 to 3.68 million in 2013.
The author makes the connection that the fact that this rise in psychotropic drugs is occurring in elderly people could be due to a lack of resources and outlets for their issues such as therapists. It is important for people to understand the risks of taking many different drugs at once and this article discusses this topic.
I think that the author did a good job of clearly explaining the topic in the article and making the connection to how this impacts society and why it is so bad to take so many drugs at once. I think she could have done a better job at suggesting some solutions and giving her own personal opinion. Overall, it was very intriguing and I learned some new information from it.
Sophia did a great job with her review of the article "Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans' Use of Psychotropic Drugs." Her review was short, informative, and easy to understand. She clearly explained the topic and included a nice quote from the article. She also used data, such as the fact that office visits by people 65 or older that resulted in prescribing of at least three of a list of psychiatric, sleep and pain medication, increase from 2.5 million in 2004 to 3.68 million in 2013, to strengthen her argument.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Sophia did a good job, there are a few things she could improve. First, I would have liked her to list some of the effects of the drugs that older people are taking and how the negatively or positively affect their health. I also would have liked her to explain what psychotropic drugs are and give some examples so the reader has a better understanding of the topic.
I learned a great deal from Sophia's review and it really made me think about how we handle mental health and geriatric care in this country. I think we should invest more into cognitive behavioral therapy for people dealing with mental health issues rather than prescribing them drugs right away. These drugs can be helpful in some cases, but become dangerous and ineffective when overdone.
Allison Barker
ReplyDeleteAP Biology
Current Event Comment
2/15/17
Carey, Benedict. "Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans' Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017. .
I greatly enjoyed Sophia’s review of the article “Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans’ Use of Psychotropic Drugs” because it informed me of a topic that I knew little about. One thing that I appreciated was Sophia’s inclusion of a quote from the author, as this helped me to understand the issue from the author’s perspective and allowed me to comprehend the author’s argument. I also liked that Sophia included a statistic in her review, as this gave me further insight that a simple description would not have given me. I also appreciated Sophia’s discussion of things that the author could have improved upon, as this allowed me to not get too swept up in the author’s argument.
Although Sophia’s review was very good, there are a couple of things that I would change about it to make it even better. First, I would include a more detailed description of the study, as this would allow me to more fully understand the actual implications of the study’s results. Second, I would elaborate on the importance of knowing the risks of taking drugs, as this is a very important point.
Overall, I did not know that a rise in drug use was occurring amongst older citizens, and I very much enjoyed Sophia’s review.
I read Sophia’s review of the article, “Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans' Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs.” I enjoyed reading her article for three reasons. The first reason is that she provided a very good summary of the article. The second reason is that she quoted the original article which added credibility to her summary. Finally, I enjoyed how she kept her review concise and did not include any useless information.
ReplyDeleteAlthough her review was well written, she could have improved two aspects of her review. The first was that she could have improved on her grammar, as this would have made the review much easier to read. Second, I would have liked her to list some of the effects of the drugs that older people are taking and how the negatively or positively affect their health.
After reading this article, it expanded my knowledge on the negatives of assigning so many mental health drugs to retirement age people in the US.
ReplyDeleteSophia’s review of the article “Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans’ Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs” was well written. Her inclusion of a quote heightened her review and gave a sense of the article’s overall tone. Her summary was concise and to the point. Lastly, her inclusion of a statistic provided important information on the topic and a better view of the issue.
Although Sophia’s review was well written, there were a few aspects that could have been improved. First, listing the effects of the drugs mentioned in the review would give a better sense of the issue. Second, a better description of the study would have provided important information as to how the data was gathered, which would in turn reflect on the study as a whole.
This review was very informative. Perhaps doctors should be more hesitant to prescribe drugs to old people for some of the issues that they are facing, as at the current usage level these medicines are in some cases doing more harm than good.
Carey, Benedict. "Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans' Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017. .
ReplyDeleteSophia’s review of Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans' Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs was a very interesting review. I liked how she was really thorough and gave explained why there is this rise in psychotropic drugs. This helped me understand her review much better and gave me a better idea of what exactly this topic means. This strengthened her review as it helped the readers have a deep understanding of what she is talking about. In addition, the fact that she added statistics from a recent study that demonstrated the increase of psychiatric, sleep and pain medication, from 2.5 million in 2004 to 3.68 million in 2013, really gave her review more detail. Finally, the last thing that I thought Sophia did very well was that she had a quote from the article which I thought added to her review a lot, and made it seem even more precise.
Although this review was extremely interesting, one way it could have been made better is that Sophia could have elaborated a bit more on her second paragraph and added a bit more on the effect of this topic for the world. By adding one or two more sentence, she could have made her review even more captivating. Moreover, I would have liked for her talk a bit more on the different types of drugs that are given out to the patients. By doing this it would have added even detail to her review.
Overall, this review was captivating and taught me about a topic that I had never learned about. I didn’t think that doctors could be prescribing unnecessary psychotropic drugs to older Americans. Thus, by reading Sophia’s review I learned about a new perspective on the subject. This wasn’t only interesting but it showed me how much we can never trust anyone even doctors, as they could be prescribing unnecessary drugs.
Evelyn Kluemper
ReplyDelete3/2/17
AP Biology
Carey, Benedict. "Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans' Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.
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Sophia’s review of “Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans’ Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs” by Benedict Carey was interesting to read. Sophia described the issue of how the elderly are taking more unnecessary drugs clearly and included appropriate facts and statistics. She incorporated a quote from the article that described why this is a relevant problem. Her critique was honest and concise, as she said that the author should have suggested some solutions to this increased use of drugs among the elderly.
Although Sophia’s review is well-written, it would be interesting to hear the impact that these drugs have on the health of the elderly in order to completely understand why they should not be taken. Also, I would like to know what drugs are being described and for what apparent illnesses. This can all be achieved by lengthening the summary paragraph of the review.
I was unaware of this problem prior to reading Sophia’s review. The fact that this issue is not well-known made me consider how the US handles geriatric care. As Sophia implied, therapy would be much more beneficial to the elderly seeking help.
Alexander Plaza
ReplyDeleteCarey, Benedict. "Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans' Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 14 Feb. 2017. .
Sophia, I read your review of "Sharp Rise Reported in Older Americans' Use of Multiple Psychotropic Drugs” by Benedict Casey and I thought that you did a very good job. I thought that you did a good job at summarizing the article.It was brief but I was not confused about your topic. This is good for the readers since it creates a firm base for your review. It does not bore the reader with useless information and you are able to move to the main point of your review faster. I also like that you provide concrete statistics on the increase of prescriptions. It gives numbers for the reader to comprehend the scope of the problem. Finally, I like that you quote the author. Her quote provides a direct connection to the article.
Although your article was good, there are some things that you could improve on. First, I think you could elaborate on the evolution of the risks of over prescribing drugs, especially for the older generation. Also, I believe that you could improve some minor grammatical errors. This would stop the reader’s attention from being drawn away from the content of the review towards the grammar.
Overall I enjoyed your review. I’m interested to see if the affects health care is provided for the older generation. I think that one possible explanation for over prescription is to prevent not prescribing medication for someone who really needs them.