Medications are a common tool in the doctor's arsenal for treating diseases. They also appear to be a common source of harm among Americans, too.
Several new reports illustrate an unfortunate truth about medications (and health care in general): Any treatment that's strong enough to help you also has the power to harm you.
One study, from Health Services Research, looked at data on adverse drug events from 2005 to 2007. The researchers found that one-half of 1 percent of all ambulatory health care visits for adults (eg, a trip to the doctor's office or emergency department) are related to adverse drug events. Just 0.05 percent of visits may seem like a paltry proportion, but it adds up to about 4.5 million visits to the doctor each year for unwanted effects of medications.
That means adults make more visits to treat medication problems each year than they do for strep throat or pneumonia, the lead researcher told American Medical News. And remember, that's not even counting medication problems in children.
People taking six to eight medications were nearly four times as likely to make one of these visits compared to people taking no medications. Not surprisingly, older people -- who take more medications in general -- had a greater risk than younger people.
In another report discussed in American Medical News, in 2008 nearly 1.9 million hospital stays resulted in a drug-related adverse outcome. That's nearly 5 percent of such stays.
These findings offer a snapshot of medication problems sending people to the doctor, and trips to the doctor resulting in medication problems.
Unwanted effects from medicines can arise from many sources. People can take the right drug at the right dosage for the right problem, but their system simply reacts badly to the drug in an unexpected way. This means they may just be someone who encounters a known side effect that's listed in the drug information materials (which too-few people read or discuss with their pharmacist). People can also take too much of the drug, or take it the wrong way. Or they can fall victim to a bad combination of different medications.
Americans take a lot of medications for chronic health problems. And they land in the hospital in vast numbers for these problems, and while they're in there, an overtaxed staff working in a highly complex environment is at risk of giving medications in error.
Experts like to talk about how doctors, pharmacies and hospitals can reduce the numbers of people who fall victim to adverse drug effects. But I'd rather focus on what individuals can do to protect themselves.
Unfortunately, too-few experts offer the following advice: People can -- and should -- simply reduce the number of medications they need. Many of the serious and chronic diseases that require medications are preventable, like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease and heartburn. If you exercise more, keep your weight down, eat more plant foods and less junk food and avoid smoking, you'll go a long way toward protecting yourself in the first place.
These steps can also reduce your need for antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications, too, along with meditation and working on stress control techniques. (Always speak to your doctor before stopping any prescribed medications).
Medicines, and the health care providers who prescribe them, are crucial for maintaining your health when you have a disease in most cases. But as we see time and time again, it's even better not to need them for this purpose.
Follow Dr. Cindy Haines on Twitter: www.twitter.com/drcindyhaines
I'm not saying that drug makers or medical practitioners should be dismissive of adverse effects. But a LOT of medications have them, and they need to be assessed, and either accepted as tolerable and benign, or noted as dangerous so the drug can be discontinued. Patients who need to take a large number of medications will have a higher likelihood of intolerable effects, especially since one drug may interact negatively with another; but then if they took nothing, they might die of the underlying illnesses.
It's not an easily solved problem, and articles such as this over-simplify.
There is not really such a thing as a "side effect," there are only "effects," with some of them being the target or desired ones and others being peripheral, undesired, or even dangerous. If you take aspirin for pain relief, then blood-thinning is a "side-effect," and perhaps a scary one. But if you tak aspirin *because* of its blood-thinning effects, then that's good, and you probably aren't disturbed by the anti-inflammatory effects as they aren't particularly dangerous.
Every human is genetically, biologically, and chemically individual, and everybody will respond to a given drug in a unique way. It may be that *most* people will react in one way, but it shouldn't be surprising that others don't. Perhaps the majority will have X response to a drug, but a few will have Y. It's not an allergy. (Also some people will get optimum benefit on dosage A while others will need dosage B.) It's just that most drugs affect more than one body system, and sometimes those effects are unpleasant if not severe. Everybody has to weigh the risks and benefits of any given treatment: are the non-target issues associated with it critical, annoying, tolerable and so forth.
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Rxpert Advice – What You Should Know Before You Leave the Pharmacy
Prevent medication errors - ask your pharmacist for help. Your pharmacist is a medication expert and can help to make sure you are getting the right drugs and are taking them properly. You should know the name of the drug, what it is used for, how to take it properly and what side effects to expect. It is up to you to ask for help if you do not understand how to take your medications. When the pharmacist asks you if you have any questions about your medications, say “Yes I do” and get the information you need.
Never leave the pharmacy if the information the pharmacist gives you does not match what the doctor told you. Be sure to stop and ask for clarification if there is any difference in what your doctor told you about your medication and what the pharmacist is telling you. Never assume that the information is correct if it does not make sense to you. This is critical to preventing medication errors.
2) Before you leave the pharmacy, ask the pharmacist these four simple questions:
Remember N.U.T.S.:
N: What is the Name of this medication?
U: What is the medication Used for?
T: How should I Take this medication?
S: What are the Side effects of this medication?
"The court ruled in a 5 to 4 decision that companies that make generic drugs, which account for close to 75 percent of all drugs dispensed in America, cannot be sued under state laws for not disclosing all the risks they know about the drugs they make.
Federal law says that generic drug makers have to use the exact same warning labels as name-brand drugs. Some state laws require changes or updates as new information about drug risks are discovered. That happens because generics come into use many years after name-brand drugs have been available, or because generic drug makers get more information from doctors and patients about risk since so many more people take the generic versions. THE COURT SAID THEY DID NOT CARE WHAT THE GENERIC MANUFACTURER MIGHT KNOW."
Thanks for also allowing the drugs to be labeled for uses other than for which they were tested.
And they are allowed to go on the market without proper testing.
Ironically, yesterday I watched a documentary on PBS about the treatment of Lyme disease patients and the doctors who treat them with protocol outside the IDSA(?). It was appalling and heart breaking. Medical boards are suspending physicians licenses because they are prescribing long term treatment of Lyme with antibiotics. They tell patients they need psychiatric treatment instead. They are ignoring treatment and research that doesn't follow protocol that involves pharms manufactured by drug companies that they are closely tied to through grants, payment for expert testimony in legal cases and employment.
They were telling children who had been ballet dancers and soccer players who no longer had use of their legs it was all in their heads!
My question is why is that the only medium I have heard about this from?
Really is Bristol Palin's loss of virginity more important than one of the most important things our government can do, protect our health?
Welcome to America 2011........... there's a pill for that.
Doctors often have a "too cozy" relationship with pharmaceutical companies. How many times have you seen a drug rep drop by while visiting your local physician.
All those "free samples" you get. They're not "free" the drug companies know that once they get you hooked on the latest "we have a pill for that" ........ you are more than likely going to demand more, and more, until they come out with their "new improved" version.
The Medical profession is not blameless in this cycle. Neither are we, nor the legislature. How many more problems have come about since drug companies were granted permission to advertise on television?
This is basically just another case of the biggest "sickness" in America. We, as a society, now put profit before people.
Bad enough in the general day to day workings of our lives, but when it infects our healthcare industry, where do we draw the line?
The number nearly triples since the FDA began a new reporting system in 1998. The main culprits are painkillers.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-drugs11sep11,0,7604859.story?coll=la-home-center
AP analysis finds U.S. pain medicine use has skyrocketed 88 percent
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/20/america/NA-FEA-GEN-US-World-of-Pain.php
Drug companies’ aggressive marketing ‘harms’ public health: studies
http://www.emaxhealth.com/1020/aggressive-drug-marketing-and-resultant-prescribing-causes-harm-patients
Food meant as nourishment is compromised and becomes a form of self-medication. The salt, sugar, and fat consumption creates cyclical addiction. Prescriptions become precarious magic wands. Physicians are the first to admit that statins are the "last resort" for clients who are in denial, and unwilling to make commitments of better choices.
I was an RN, Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist for almost 30 years and had an RN bring me a cup of medications when I was hospitalized in the intensive care unit after I almost bled to death from fibroids before the GYN guys decided it was an emergency. That is no joke...I had received a ton of blood, plasma, platelets and was still white as a sheet. While there, this cute little RN announced that she had my "meds". I looked at them, asked what the heck they were, she didn't know, and she told me to "stop" being difficult and take them. I refused and asked her what they were, and she couldn't tell me. No RN should ever administer medications without knowing what they are. She could not and that made me furious. I told her no, she stomped her foot and I then dumped them in the floor and told her to get her supervisor. The Supervisor said I needed to stop being "difficult' and I told her I did not recognize the meds, and her RN couldn't tell me what the meds were and I wasn't going to take "mystery" drugs. They came back with three meds she knew the names of and they were not the meds she had originally brought to me.
I kept asking for the meds I was on before the surgery, and the nurses said they were not ordered and refused to call my GYN for orders. I finally told them to call the pharmacy and ask about the FDA advisory which had been issued four months before which specifically addressed the one medication I was on, and hadn't received in two days, and then I though they would call the doctor. Fifteen minutes later, the RN RAN DOWN THE HALL WITH THE MED, as DEATHS had been reported with sudden cessation. I was a medical person so I knew about that, but that RN and MY DOCTOR SHOULD HAVE, AS WELL When the GYN appeared, he was sheepish and said he stopped those meds because he didn't have "sick" patients, usually and thought that with my blood loss and everything they might be "bad" for me.