The most prescribed drugs by doctors, according to a new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study are anti-depressants. The US CDC looked at 2.4 billion drugs prescribed in 1.2 billion visits to 352 hospitals and about 1,200 physicians throughout 2005.
118 million of the prescriptions were for antidepressants or roughly 5% of all drugs prescribed. This number is equivalent to 39.5% of the entire US population being on anti-depressants at any given time.
High blood pressure medications followed at 113 million and arthritis or headache drugs were mentioned in 110 million patient records.
The study also found that hospital and doctor visits have surged 20% in the past five years.
The full CDC report is available online at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/as/ad388.pdf.
With fear and anxiety seemingly at an all time high, should any of us really be surprised?
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