Americans Take More Drugs
From the January 16 2001 PRnewswire is a story that
reveals some startling numbers. According
to a survey conducted for the American Society of Health-System
Pharmacists (ASHP), 51% of American adults take two or more medications
per day, which include over-the-counter drugs.
The study also
showed that 46% take at least one prescription medication daily and 28%
take multiple prescription drugs per day.
These figures show that an alarming rate of the adult
population in the United States uses drugs of some kind.
As expected the elderly have the highest rate of medication usage
with 79% of those over 65 reported to be taking at least one medication
daily. Americans who are over
65 and take medications take an average of 4 medications per day per
person.
One of the concerns expressed by the ASHP president,
Mick L. Hunt, M.S., was that medications could have bad interactions when
mixed. Hunt said, “We
want all patients to be aware of the potential for drug interactions that
occur when mixing all of these remedies, especially when taking multiple
medications each day.”
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