• Defective Drug Side Effects

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A new government run study has found that some medications seem to cause a disproportionate number of adverse events that oftentimes require visits to the emergency room, and sometimes even hospitalization.

Study Details

The study, conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Consumer Product of Illinois, and the Food and Drug Administration, calculated that more than 700,000 Americans suffer a bad drug reaction from the use of several common prescription or over-the-counter medications every year.

Furthermore, researchers found that patients over 65 faced over double the risk of suffering adverse events that require emergency room treatment and were almost 7 times more likely to need hospitalization.

“This is an important study because it reinforces the really substantial risks that there are in everyday use of drugs,” said Bruce Lambert, a professor at the University of Illinois'' college of pharmacy.

Common Culprits

The drugs that were most likely to cause a reaction included amoxicillin, a popular antibiotic prescribed for infections, insulin for diabetes, and the anticoagulant warfarin. However, some of the most common over-the-counter drugs including herbal treatments and dietary supplements were also on the list.

Many of these harmful reactions are often attributed to allergic reactions or accidental overdoses.

“These are old drugs which are known to be extremely effective,” said Lambert. “We could not and would not want to live without them. But you''ve got to get the dose exactly right. Variations, especially on the high side, are really dangerous.”

The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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