How Two Rights Can Make a Wrong

In a February 25, 2007 NY Times article entitled "How Two Rights Can Make a Wrong," Howard Markle, MD does a fantastic job if describing the perils of prescription drugs. Added to this well-referenced article is a graphic that describes the complexity in a new way.

• Follow this link to the NY Times article (Subscription may be required)
• Follow this link to the NY Times graphic (copyrighted material)

He has a more current, 2005 number for prescription drugs - 3.6 billion (2004 was 3.38 billion). His source is the Kaiser Family Foundation. (source - June 2006 Prescription Fact Sheet)

Mentioned as well is the October 18, 2006 survey of emergency departments published in JAMA by Budnitz et. al. (PubMed Source; JAMA abstract). They performed active surveillance from January 1, 2004, through December 31, 2005, through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-Cooperative Adverse Drug Event Surveillance project. They found that over the 2-year study period, 21,298 adverse drug event cases were reported, producing weighted annual estimates of 701,547 individuals.

The Sloan Epidemiology Center is cited as a source for prescription drug use. They claim:

• 75% of Americans over 65 years of age took roughly four prescription drug on a daily basis
• the average 75-year old swallowed 8 different prescription medications each day
• 82 percent of the united states population reported using at least one prescription drug, over-the-counter meds, or dietary supplement in the previous week.

A fascinating report by the Columbia University Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse entitled "Under the Counter: the Diversion and Abuse of Controlled Substances in the US" states that:

• 34% of pharmacists do not have time to check a patient's full medication history at the time of dispensing
• 28% do not regularly validate the prescriber DEA number and 10% rarely or never do so.
• Only about half (54%) of physicians in the survey regularly call or obtain records from patient's previous (or other treating) physicians before prescribing long-term controlled drugs.