Increased use of prescription drugs, sleeping pills, antidepressants, opioids. Thanks for your note, Roger, yes inequality plays a huge role. Let’s look at the stress these rural women are under, with low paying jobs, husbands who are underemployed, or may be out of work, or absent, and if they are home, they have to work two or three jobs, and juggle family and children’s needs. The women get the bulk of the work at home and at their jobs.
They get depressed. If they go to the doctor and complain of depression, they will get on antidepressants, which we are known to cause suicidal thoughts and acts, as well as increased fatigue and fuzzy thinking.
Middle-aged women on antidepressants like Prozac 'face stroke risk'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2025140/Middle-aged-women-Prozac-face-stroke-risk.html#ixzz45qK0QzzL
Being fuzzy headed and depressed seems just normal now, and they don't think it is because of their antidepressants, just their condition is deteriorating. So they go to the local quick stop, and get some Energy Drinks to get through their days:
Energy Drinks Cause of Many Sudden Cardiac Deaths — High amounts of sugar and caffeine can aggravate underlying heart issues, causing fatal arrhythmias
Then, with too much caffeine, they cannot sleep at night, so they decide to get some sleeping pills.
New Study Shows Sleeping Pills Linked to Increased Risk of Death and Cancer
And they go back to their Dr. complaining of pain now, because they are not sleeping well, and they get some opioid pain reliever from their Dr. to help them, and while they are there, they complain of still being depressed, and they get put onto a second antidepressant, and the dose of their first one is increased:
Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999,1 and so have sales of these prescription drugs.2 From 1999 to 2014, more than 165,000 people have died in the U.S. from overdoses related to prescription opioids.1 Opioid prescribing continues to fuel the epidemic. Today, at least half of all U.S. opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid.1 In 2014, more than 14,000 people died from overdoses involving prescription opioids.
http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/overdose.html
And if you think these are isolated incidents, read the articles and weep. I have been seeing patients, of all ages, in my private practice for 25 years, and most of them are on between 6 and 21 different medications, given to them by three or more MDs, and most of the MDs don’t question the other doctor’s prescriptions, because each one has their own specialty, you see.
Perhaps many of us think these women are using illegal drugs, or alcohol in excess… but any amount of alcohol at all when taking these many drugs will tip the scales toward death.
And then there is the no sleep, worry, stress over sick or acting out kids, and no time to shop or cook, or desire to cook if there is time. So these women have no chance, you see… and no one to talk to them about their medications, or how to get out of this downward, death-ward spiral.
Emi
