American Prescription Drug Use
“The average number of prescriptions [drugs] per
person, annually, in 1993 was seven.
The average number of prescriptions [drugs] per
person, annually, in 2000 was eleven.
[The average number of prescriptions drugs per
person], annually, in 2004 was twelve.
The total number of annual prescriptions [drugs] in
the United States now stands at about 3 billion.
The cost per year is about $180 billion,
headed to an estimated $414 billion by 2011.
Pretty soon, you are talking real money.”
Generation Rx
How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives,
Minds, and Bodies
Greg Critser
Houghton Mifflin Company
