Repeat Prescription Patients: Are They an Identifiable Group?

In this article, Dr. Balint examines the use of repeat prescriptions in medical practice as a way of dealing with patients' personal emotional problems and as an attempt to diminish conflicts in doctor-patient relations.

A clinical and statistical study of 1,000 patients of 10 medical practitioners suggests that repeat prescription patients need and seek a reliable, continuing, but non-threatening relationship with a physician as a substitute gratification for frustrations in certain life experiences. This search can lead to frequent contacts with doctors. resulting in tense or negative relationships which tend to be superficially relieved by introduction of the “repeat prescription regime.” Illness-centered medicine (“traditional diagnosis”) is contrasted with patient-centered medicine (“overall diagnosis”) in terms of their respective influence on the patient, his illness, and on the development of the relationship to his doctor.