Friends Can Decrease Your Need for Canadian Prescription Drugs

Finding a friend with similar traits and interests can raise the success rate of overcoming diseases, and thus decreasing the intake of Canadian drugs . 

"I think the reality is, we as individuals may have less motivation to change on our own than if we're surrounded by our peer group, even if we met on a social network site," said Dr. Victor Fornari, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New Hyde Park, N.Y., who is familiar with the study. "We're very influenced by the group phenomenon." 

"I think it was a pretty brilliant study," said Tricia M. Leahey, an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Miriam Hospital's Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center in Providence. "It's neat that they're actually starting to manipulate a social network in a way specific to homophily." 

"Group therapy is also partially based on the premise that people can empathize better with others they relate to," said Dr. Alan Manevitz, a clinical psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.  A common scenario is a group of friends aiming to lose weight – with group effort, to buy Crestor and with various fat-burning activities success is not a question. 

"The question of whether people can benefit from role models that show how to move out of similar thinking is also part and parcel of the development of social networks," Manevitz said. "We all need to be able to interact with people who can promote other senses of self, that you can take in and create within yourself." 

"We can say, 'Gee, if I'm in a network of relatively healthy individuals and become friends with someone who's overweight or obese, we might be influenced by this one individual,'" she said. "So I guess it cuts both ways."

But Leahey said, "I have observed results similar to the new study in "Shape Up RI," a statewide initiative in Rhode Island that draws friends, family members and coworkers into teams to increase exercise, family meals, fruit and vegetable consumption and reduce screen time. The program has shown that group support can become a powerful driver of healthy behaviors."

"Ideally, the findings should spur other statewide or public programs promoting healthy lifestyles either in person or on Internet-based social networks," Fornari and Leahey said.

"Certainly, that would be an exciting opportunity and I know that more and more educational opportunities will be web-based," Fornari said.  With that, web-based Canadian pharmacies online will also come in handy.