(24-09-10) America?s Newest Drug Addicts: How Legal Drugs are Destroying America?

The drug company Wyeth used ghostwriters to emphasize the benefits and
downplay the harm of hormone replacement therapy in medical journal articles.

Wyeth, now owned by Pfizer, paid a company called DesignWrite $25,000 to
ghostwrite articles on clinical studies, including four regarding Prempro, the
company's combination estrogen-progestin therapy.

Reuters reports:

?... [T]he articles were intended to mitigate concerns that hormone
replacement therapy raises the risk of breast cancer, and to support the
unfounded idea that the drugs offer some protection against heart disease.?

Meanwhile, prescription drug use in the United States has been rising steadily
over the past 10 years. The trend shows no signs of slowing.

A study published by the CDC states that the percentage of Americans who took
at least one prescription drug has risen from 43.5 percent to 48.3 percent.

According to WebMD:

?The use of two or more drugs increased from 25.4 percent to 31.2 percent over
the same decade, and the use of five or more prescription medications jumped
from 6.3 percent to 10.7 percent.?

There is also a new drug problem emerging in the United States -- a national
epidemic of prescription drug abuse that has become so widespread it's being
called "Pharmageddon." Some have defined Pharmageddon as ?the prospect of a
world in which medicines and medicine produce more ill-health than health, and
when medical progress does more harm than good.?

In just 20 years, deaths from accidental drug overdoses have increased five-
fold. Unintentional overdoses have now replaced car accidents as the leading
cause of accidental death in 15 states and the District of Columbia.

According to CBS News, there are definite signs someone could be addicted to
prescription drugs:

?Activities abandoned or reduced ... Dependence on the drug ... Duration or
amount greater than intended, intra-personal consequences -- that they can't
cut down or control it. And when it becomes time-consuming.?

Sources:
Reuters September 7, 2010
WebMD September 2, 2010
Bloomberg September 2, 2010
CBS News September 4, 2010
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In evidenza

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