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ATLANTA — About half of all Americans take at least one prescription drug each month, and 10 percent take more than four, according to a new government report.
"Health, United States, 2013" is an annual report on the nation's health prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. This year's report includes a special section on prescription drugs.
Here are a few key facts from that section:
We spend a lot on prescription drugs. In 2011, Americans spent $263 billion on prescription drugs, which accounts for 9.7 percent of all national health expenditures (up from 5.6 percent in 1990).
Pharmaceutical companies aren't relying on doctors to sell their pills. Spending on direct-to-consumer advertising for all drugs more than tripled between 1996 and 2005 to $4.2 billion, according to the report.
Americans are depressed. Adults' use of antidepressants increased more than fourfold between the years of 1988-94 and 2007-10, from 2.4 percent to 10.8 percent.
Doctors are prescribing fewer useless antibiotics. Antibiotics prescribed during medical visits for cold symptoms declined 39 percent between 1995-96 and 2009-10. That's good news, as the overuse and misuse of antibiotics is contributing to antibiotic resistance worldwide and limiting our arsenal to fight infections.
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The prescription drug death epidemic is a big problem. Consumption of pain medications called opioid analgesics increased 300 percent between 1999 and 2010, and death rates in people age 15 and older involving these drugs more than tripled between 2000 and 2010.
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