Collegiate Times

Sleeping pill usage in children and young adults is soaring. In fact, usage has increased by a total of 85 percent from 2000 to 2004. If, according to doctors, nothing can replace a natural night?s sleep, what is causing this augmentation?

A simple response to that question: Side effects of other medications.

Fifteen percent of the individuals under the age of 20 who received medications such as Lunesta to treat insomnia are also being treated for Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder. The reason that many of them have been forced to take sleeping pills is simple ? their medication for ADHD has side effects, one of which is insomnia.

The root of this problem is much larger. The United States as a whole is overmedicated. In the case of sleeping pills, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved any sleep medication for children under the age of 18, yet doctors all too often use treatments like these for children.

In 2000, Medco Health Solutions performed a study that showed 554 of the 340,124 patients in its sample aged 10 to 19 were taking sleeping pills. Conversely, in 2004, Medco?s study involved a sample of 342,568 patients of the same age and 1,032 of that group took sleeping pills. Its study branched out among age groups to find that the older a patient, the more likely he or she was to use sleeping pills. In 2004, about 2.8 million people between the ages of 20 and 44 used sleeping pills. Approximately 3.3 million in the 45 to 64 age group and more than 2.2 million people 65 or older also used sleeping pills.

The simple cause of such an over-application of treatments is the perceived need of United States citizens to find a ?quick fix.? Society has decided that rather than dealing with its problems, it will go to whatever extreme necessary to solve problems as quickly as possible. This is not to demean the treatment of people who, out of necessity, use medications like sleeping pills. It simply suggests that on the whole, people would rather take a pill than find the source of their troubles.

It could be that the fundamental reason behind such an overuse of medications are doctors who simply throw prescriptions at people. However, as a physician, one has the duty to help patients; you simply cannot discount the problems patients bring to your office.

The United States has become dependent on medications. One pill is originally prescribed, then another must be taken to fight off the side effects of the first; before a patient is aware, he or she could be taking five different medications, when the first may not have been necessary to begin with.

Society?s dependency on drugs is a dangerous dilemma that needs to be diminished. Taking a pill isn?t going to completely solve anyone?s problems. People in the United States should put quick fixes to rest and get to the root of their trouble.