Over 30% of us have used two or more prescription drugs in the past month. On top of that, around 81% of adults in the US use over-the-counter drugs as a first response to minor conditions…
Medical News Today looked at whether we have become too reliant on medication and, if so, what the consequences are:
- Addiction and overdosing
- Antibiotic resistance
- The side effects of long-term, inappropriate and multiple medication use
- Are doctors overprescribing medication?
- Drug advertising: influencing both doctors and patients?
- What can we do to avoid unnecessary medication?
Read Have we become too dependent on medication?
medicalnewstoday, 29 January 2015.
More information
- Prescription Drug Trends, kaiserfamilyfoundation, May 2010.
- Prescription Drug Use Continues to Increase: U.S. Prescription Drug Data for 2007–2008, CDC, September 2010.
- Statistics on over-the-counter OTC Use, chpa, 2012
- Drug Overdoses are killing more People than traffic Accidents, Falls, Firearms in the USA, Popsci Science, 2013.
- Each Day, 46 People die from an Overdose of Prescription Painkillers in the US, CDC, opioid-prescribing, July 2014.