Healthy elderly people are being turned into “anxious” patients in a relentless drive to reduce heart disease rates, a professor claims today.
Many people are being put on pills even when there is little evidence they personally will benefit, according to Professor Michael Oliver, who is a retired heart specialist from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Writing for the British Medical Journal, Professor Oliver blames “over enthusiastic and uncritical interpretation of guidelines, the demands of government health economics, and the endless pressures from pharmaceutical companies.”
He says “bureaucratic” demands for can lead to over-diagnosis, over-treatment and unnecessary anxiety.
The professor cites treatments for high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes as being over-prescribed.
As an example, he says, some 75 elderly people with high blood pressure have to be treated to save one from having a stroke.
According to Professor Oliver: “Guidelines should not be regarded as commandments to investigate and treat, and that the balance between the risks of treatment and the untreated risk are explained fully to the individual.”
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