(Bloomberg) — Americans are good at popping pills. About 46 percent of the U.S. population used one or more prescription drugs in the past 30 days, according to a survey from the National Center for Health Statistics. With almost half the U.S. population taking drugs, it may be surprising that this figure is a slight improvement from 10 years prior. Changing trends in prescription drug use over time may be
influenced by changing disease prevalence and diagnosis expanded treatment recommendations, and decline in the use of inappropriate or ineffective therapies,” according to the report. The types of prescription drugs Americans use vary by age group. Medicine used to treat asthma was most common among the youngest cohort. For adolescents, between 12 to 19 years old, stimulants to treat attention deficit disorder were most common with about one in 16 adolescents with a prescription. READ MORE
