Medicine ‘misuse’: implications for health and environmental sustainability

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed a global rise in the use of medical pharmaceuticals to combat disease. However, estimates suggest that over half of all medicines are prescribed, dispensed or sold inappropriately, and that half of all patients fail to take them as directed. Bringing together research from across the medical, natural and social sciences, this paper considers what we know about the causes, impacts and implications of medicine misuse in relation to health, the sustainable use of pharmaceuticals and their unintended effects in the environment. We suggest that greater insight and understanding of medicine misuse can be gained by integrating the biomedical-focused approaches used in public health with approaches that consider the social and environmental determinants of medical prescribing and consuming practices.