Dr Mario syndrome (medicine)

Dr Mario syndrome is the unusual phenomena of doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists to treat the symptoms and not the cause of a given problem, classically with (either an excessive useage of, over-reliance on or just) pills, although Dr Mario syndrome is primarily directed towards doctors in medicine, it can be expanded to other areas with similar traits.

Origins
The term arises from the game "Dr Mario" in the protagonist, Dr Mario, would throw an obtensibly large number of pills at a problem until either the problem was solved via sheer tenacity (given the large and diverse nature of pills used) or failure occurred.

Naturally, it forms an ideal parallel in that Dr Mario, who is limited to using just pills and thus a brute force algorithm (which is a very resource inefficient algorithm) as a form of treatment, can be used as a reference for doctors who also use pills as a de facto solution to all sorts of problems, throwing them at patients much akin to Dr Mario.

Problems with Dr Mario syndrome
Dr Mario syndrome is problematic in that it treats the symptoms of a patient, and not the cause, which is contrary to the basis and observations of Hippocrates (in that he determined illnesses had causes). By effectively throwing pills as a kneejerk solution to a problem without effectively understanding them means one invites a culture of ignorance, and the possibility of misdiagnosis and mistreatment  of the patient.

Dr Mario syndrome ignores the fact that the doctor, psychiatrist or psychologist might have other options at their disposal (such as cognitive behavioural therapy in the case of a psychologist or psychiatrist, or improved diet and exercise in the case of doctors or even the much broader range of specialism within the medical industry as a whole) besides pills.

The negative effects or ineffectiveness of pill treatment in studies is often suppressed, with studies retaken until one succeeds, or in some cases, outright manipulated. In some trial cases, researchers have ties with drug manufacturers presenting a conflict of interest. Even approved drugs may contain harmful effects  which end up negating any possible benefits. Worse, half of drugs may actually be placebo (that is, have no effect besides the patient's belief) or could simply be replaced with other choices, such as exercise.

Drugs that are harmful and ineffective, which result in mistreatment and possibly malpractice lawsuits, present drug waste in terms of cost , and environmental damage in terms of drugs that infiltrate the water supply   and impact insects and animals which can impact the food web. If animals and plants bioaccumulate the toxins of the drugs from the water supply in their bodies to higher dosages, it may impact human health if they are eaten.

The overuse of anti-biotics as a kneejerk solution to trivial problems has resulted in the rise of anti-biotic resistance  , resulting in problems such as MRSA and multi-drug resistant strains (also known as 'superbugs'). By using the drugs as a short-term solution, it has negatively impacted the long-term effacy of the antibiotics.

Dr Mario syndrome is also encouraged by the fact pharmaceutical companies will pay doctors kickbacks for prescribing pills, of which numerous lawsuits have occurred as a result. Lawsuits for kickbacks has occurred with such regularity that a law in the US (known as the anti-kickback statue) was passed to counter it with considerations for similar laws in Australia, and such that US law firms now specialise in anti-kickback lawsuits. The kickback scams are largely perpetuated by patent laws and part of a much wider pharmaceutical fraud.