A Prescription Drug Danger, Side Effect and Adverse Drug
Reaction Outline
“If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you follow?”
Generations of kids have rolled their eyes to that question, only
to later repeat it to their own children. It’s the pat parenting
phrase warning of `herd mentality.’
Yet, the same adults who ask this question continue to follow the
herd mentality of using prescription drug medication for their and
their children’s ails. And for some, the danger of adverse drug
reaction is as sure as the jump off a cliff.
Adverse drug side effect reactions, drug-related errors and deaths
are estimated to cost more that $136 billion a year in United
States. Study upon study clearly shown the danger in prescription
drug medication and surgery. Below are a sampling;
_ An estimated 2,216,000 hospitalized patients had serious adverse
drug reactions and 106,000 had fatal adverse drug reactions. (JAMA,
April 1998)
_ The incidence of serious adverse drug reaction was 6.7 per 100
patients and that of fatal adverse drug reaction was 0.32 per 100
patients. Extrapolating this data to the entire U.S. population
revealed that in 1994 alone, over 2.2 million patients experienced
a serious adverse drug reaction and 106,000 died from this
complication. These are conservative estimates, since they don't
take in consideration possible adverse drug reaction errors in
drug administration, patient non-compliance, overdose, drug abuse,
therapeutic failures and injuries and deaths occurring in nursing
home patients. (JAMA, April 1998)
_ The results a two large studies reveal that hospital medical
errors kill an estimated 44,000 (based on one study) or 98,000
(based on the second study) Americans each year. These estimates
do not include errors that may arise in settings other than the
hospital such as outpatient clinics, retail pharmacies, nursing
homes, home care, and day-surgery clinics. (Institute of Medicine,
Nov. 1999)
_ Treatment-related complications result in 116 million additional
physicians visits, 76 million prescriptions, 17 million emergency
department visits, 8 million hospital admissions, 3 million
long-term care facility admissions, and 200,000 additional deaths,
for a cost of $76.6 billion. (BMJ Publishing Group, March, 2000)
_ Almost 1 out of 5 patients who take prescription drugs
experience a treatment-related complication. About 50% of those
who experienced an adverse reaction sought medical attention as a
consequence. (Journal of General Internal Medicine, March 2000)
_ Approximately 2 million outpatient visits occurred because of
medication side effect reaction. (Journal of the American
Pharmacists Association May-June1999)
_ Almost 14 percent of children admitted to the hospital develop
an adverse drug reaction. Of those, 93 percent of the adverse drug
reactions were dose-dependent. (International Journal of Clinical
Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Oct. 1998)
_ A significant number of physicians specializing in child health
care prescribe the wrong dose of medication to children. Some of
the inappropriate dosage errors in this study were
life-threatening. (Archives of Disease in Childhood, July1998)
_ The Harvard Medical Practice Study analyzed randomly selected
medical records. Of the 30,195 in-hospital records studies, 1,117
patients sustained injuries due to their medical treatment. Of
those, 48 percent were due to surgical procedures, 19 percent to
drug-related complications, 14 percent to wound infections, and 13
percent due to technical complications. (New England Journal of
Medicine, Feb. 1991)
Furthermore, a risk management study by Johns Hopkins School of
Hygiene and Public Health Dr. Barbara Starfield placed staggering
figures to the annual deaths that occur due to prescription drug
and medical error;
- 106,000 from non-error, negative effects of drugs.
- 80,000 from infections in hospitals.
- 20,000 from other errors in hospitals
- 12,000 from unnecessary surgery.
- 7,000 from medication errors in hospitals.
It is important to note that these estimates are for deaths only
and do not include negative effects associated with disability or
discomfort. These deaths total 225,000 per year, making drugs,
doctor errors and complications arising from medical treatment the
third leading cause of death in the United States. Only heart
disease and cancer top this cause of death.
Pain, discomfort and health symptoms are warnings to a problem.
Prescription drugs do not cure the problem but mask or suppress
the symptoms. If you follow good health guidelines and address the
cause, there will be little need to run the risk of using
prescription drug medication.
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