Richer Countries Use More Lifestyle Drugs, United Nations Study Finds

Richer countries are using performance-enhancing and "image-making" drugs, such as steroids and diet drugs, in "worrying excess," the U.N.-created International Narcotics Control Board said Feb. 20. Herbert Okun, the board's U.S. government representative, said that use of such drugs in the United States is about 10 times higher than it is in Western Europe. In contrast, use of benzodiazepines -- drugs generally used to control anxiety and insomnia -- is three times higher in Western Europe than in the United States, Ozun said. He added, "The desire to correct mood and behavior through controlled drugs is very ... socially accepted. So we have what we may call, without exaggeration, a pill-popping culture." Part of the problem, Ozun said, is the "medicalization" of social problems and the trend to treat symptoms of issues like obesity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders with drugs, instead of focusing on the conditions' "underlying causes." The board, which the United Nations established to monitor international drug agreements to prevent abuse of both legal and illegal drugs, is expected to release a report with these findings today. That report focuses on "social" drugs as its "central theme" and calls on governments to "pay more attention to overuse of" those drugs, the AP/New York Times reports. The "changing" relationship between doctors and patients plays a role in what drugs get prescribed, the report notes, stating that the "patient is becoming an increasingly important contributor to the entire therapy process." Furthermore, patients are increasingly obtaining medications, legally and illegally, over the Internet, the report says. The board calls for "better international cooperation to control" such sales (Crossette, AP/New York Times, 2/21). The board's report is available at http://www.incb.org/e/ind_ar.htm.