REPORTS OF MEDICATION INJURIES HAVE DOUBLED

Study shows painkillers, immune-system drugs account for most serious ills.

Reports of deaths or injuries related to drug treatments more than doubled between 1998 and 2005 in the United States, with painkillers and immune-system boosters accounting for most, according to researchers.

“This study shows that substantially growing numbers of patients are experiencing serious injuries from drug therapy,” they wrote in a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine. “This growing toll of serious injury shows that the existing system is not adequately protecting patients and underscores the importance of recent reports urging far-reaching legislative, policy and institutional changes,” they added.

The study found 467,809 such occurrences during the period studied, with annual reports growing from 34,966 at the start to 89,842 at the end. The number of deaths due to drugs jumped from 5,519 to 15,107 during the study period. “The overall relative increase was four times faster than the growth in total U.S. outpatient prescriptions, which grew in the same period from 2.7 billion to 3.8 billion,” the researchers wrote.

The researchers estimated that a growing population and more intensive use of drug therapy might account for a quarter of the increase.

An additional 15 percent of the increase appears to involve newer biotech drugs such as interferons, which help the body’s immune system attack viruses, bacteria and other invaders.

“Among the most frequently reported drugs associated with fatal events, we observed a disproportionate contribution of pain medications and drugs that modify the immune system,” they added...

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