These numbers are certainly higher now. This study was first published in April 1998 — Data obtained from U.S. hospital records showed that 2,216,000 hospitalized patients had serious Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) and 106,000 died every year, making these ADRs the fourth leading cause of death.
To estimate the incidence of serious and fatal adverse drug reactions (ADR) in U.S. hospital patients, four electronic databases were searched from 1966 to 1996. The researchers excluded errors in drug administration, noncompliance, overdose, drug abuse, therapeutic failures, and possible ADRs. Serious ADRs were defined as those that required hospitalization, were permanently disabling, or resulted in death.
These 2.2 million ADRs and 106,000 fatalities were all determined to be due to known side effects of the drugs. The researchers who analyzed the data from U.S. hospital records were careful to exclude errors in giving the wrong drug, cases of drug overdose, drug abuse, not taking the right drug, therapeutic failures, and possible ADRs.
These astounding numbers of ADRs and fatalities were all confirmed, which leads us to assume that there was an even larger number of suspected ADR’s that could not be confirmed and thus were not reported.
Consumers must ask their doctors about drug side effects. The FDA should require mandatory dispensing of complete drug information in terms the lay public can understand and require WARNING LABELS on all drugs that have been associated with serious or fatal ADRs.
The current FDA requirement that drug companies publish the pharmaceutical / physician drug information with any advertised drug is Latin to everyone else. It appears that the pharmaceutical companies do it intentionally to prevent the public from discovering the real truth about the lack of known actions of the drugs as well as their side effects. The data is there; it’s just buried in thousands of words of medical jargon that’s too technical and too tiny for any one to read but a scientist with very thick glasses or a microscope.
SOURCE: JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) 1998 Apr 15;279(15):1200-1205