I guess it’s Woo Week at Duly Noted.
We’ve already discussed how midwives with little or no medical training are delivering increasing numbers of babies at home. But did you know that in some states naturopathic “doctors” are allowed to prescribe regular pharmaceutical drugs, the kind you normally have to go to real medical school to prescribe?
Dr. Russell Saunders, New England pediatrician, writes:
But would you like to know what drives me completely batshit? That naturopaths are allowed to prescribe real medications in many states. Whenever I am confronted with that fact in my professional life, it makes my eye twitch in a worrisome way. To say I object to this practice would be to master the art of understatement.
Every time I have come across a “traditional” (read: real) medication as prescribed by a naturopath, it has always been prescribed incorrectly or inappropriately. Every. Single. Time. I have seen potent psychiatric medications prescribed with nary a thought to monitoring blood levels. I have seen antibiotics prescribed for illness against which they are ineffective, and for stretches of time that defy all explanation. (I will elide the specific conditions for which I have seen these medications prescribed, if you don’t mind. I’m bracing myself for comments enough already as it is.) The usages have been not so much off-label as off-planet. They have done nothing to assuage my concern that naturopaths are not properly trained in pharmacology.
Disturbing, to say the least.
Have you had a bad reaction to prescription drugs prescribed by a naturopath? If so, please hit me up on twitter: @beyerstein
I’d like to hear your story.
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