Prescribing pills or people: the perplexity of social prescriptions

Abstract

Social prescriptions are increasingly being integrated into the medical curriculum – whether that be prescribing physical exercise for heart disease or a book group for depression. This is unknown territory for many medical students (and indeed doctors) with the risks and benefits being largely uncharted. Medical schools today adopt a holistic approach to medicine, teaching students to consider the whole patient rather than just their disease and encouraging shared decision making between doctor and patient. Social prescribing goes hand in hand with this, and so will undoubtedly become increasingly popular in the future despite conflicting evidence. For these reasons, it is important for medical students to understand exactly what social prescribing is and how it can potentially benefit their future patients.