PhytoScience - Article
Annual drug related deaths on the rise
Over 106,000 drug related deaths per year
A USA Today article reported on a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association addressing the subject of unintended side-effects of properly prescribed, properly administered medications. The author, Bruce Pomeranz, M.D., Ph.D., reviewed 39 different studies of adverse drug reactions in hospitals, and came up with some alarming conclusions.
According to Pomeranz’s research, he estimates that 2,216,000 hospital patients experienced serious adverse drug reactions (side effects) and 106,000 died from these reactions in 1994 alone. This astounding number accounted for 4.6% of all recorded deaths in the U.S. in that year. The numbers are proportional to population in Canada as well.
These numbers represents a completely different data set than Lucian Leape's estimate of 180,000 hospital based iatrogenic deaths per year. Leape's death estimates are associated with medical misadventure, not side effects of properly prescribed and administered medications.
It seems that the threat of serious adverse drug reactions has not decreased the usage. In an article in the January 7, 1999 New England Journal of Medicine, it was reported that, "Prescription drugs are the fastest-growing component of personal health expenditures amounting to $78.9 billion in 1997." This rate of consumption is growing at an ever-increasing rate. In 1995 spending for prescriptions grew by 10.6 percent, in 1996 it grew by 13.2 percent and in 1997 it continued the climb growing by 14.1 percent.. The Federal Office of Personnel Management blames the increase on several factors. They cite broader insurance coverage of prescription drugs, growth in the number of drugs dispensed, more approvals of more expensive drugs by the Food and Drug Administration, and direct advertising of pharmaceutical products to consumers.
Drug companies are certainly not crying the blues because of the population’s latest trend toward health and wellness. In fact they have shifted their emphasis towards sales and increased profits by promoting some drugs as preventative therapies.
This mass marketing shift has paid off handsomely for pharmaceutical companies as prescriptions for drugs rose by 400 million from 1993 to 1997, up to an astounding 2.4 billion prescriptions were dispensed in 1997. Estimates for 2005 placed pharmaceutical profits at or near 79 billion dollars. These numbers have continued to grow as pharmaceutical companies come up with new creative ad campaigns; going so far as to invent new health conditions; the latest being Road Rage Disorder and Restless Legs Syndrome. There appears to be drugs available for almost anything imaginable today!
If you're feeling blue, take a pill... if your feeling to high, theres a pill for that too!
This new approach markets drugs with the promise of preventing deppression, heart attacks, cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, impotence and the list goes on. Unfortunately, many of the side effects of these drugs can have serious adverse effects on the consumer when taken long term. Many of these side effects can prove to be fatal. {Long term use is considered to be three months and longer}
An article in U.S.News & World Report in 1997 used the example of two drugs called Tambocor and Enkaid. These two drugs were routinely prescribed for years by doctors as a preventative of sudden heart attacks. Only after years on the market was a study performed of the effects of these drugs. The study revealed that the drugs greatly increased the incidence of sudden heart attacks when taken by healthy persons. It is estimated that up to 50,000 people died as a result of consuming these drugs before the FDA put a halt to their sales.
Vioxx and Lipitor are the latest hot topic drugs to have been pulled by the FDA in recent years. Pharmaceutical companies appear to have repeated the tragic but profitable practices of the past. After all, it is less expensive to pay out penalties and compensation for the adversely affected families than it is to find, research and test and release safe new drugs. Billions can be earned annually on one drug alone; the cost of litigation has not been severe enough to dissuade pharmaceutical companies from changing their ways.
Conclussion
These drug related death toll numbers have been fairly consistent for over thirty years now. The numbers have risen marginally each year with the death toll for 2006 expected to be estimated around 108,000. Despite the advancements in technology and improved awareness, deaths due to adverse drug effects have not declined. 
This reporter finds it particularly alarming when pharmaceutical companies shares are traded on the stock market. Board room decisions are made with an empasis towards maximizing profits. Decisions are no longer based on the overall good of mankind.
The government forced the removal of cigarette advertising from television because of the health hazard. Considering the alarming statistics, maybe its time to take a long hard look at removing drug ads.
The state of your health is your own responsibility... you can seek proffessional medical advice but ultimately you will experience the results of the decisions you make or treatments you agree to. Don't be afraid to seek out second or third opinions or to explore alternative therapies. You place your life in someone elses hands when faced with life threatening illness... are you comfortable placing all your trust in one expert?
What are you doing to educate yourself about your health and wellness?
Staff Report