The Washington Post, March 24, 2016.
The number of older Americans at risk for a potentially life-threatening drug interaction doubled between 2005 and 2010, according to a new study — but not just from the prescriptions they fill at the pharmacy or the medicines they buy over the counter.
“Dietary supplements, which are not really regulated, have increased, and that is surprising. That was one of the things I thought, ‘Let me double-check the code and make sure it’s real,'” said Dima Qato, assistant professor of pharmacy systems at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who led the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Qato’s next step is to examine mortality data, to see if the increased risk from taking multiple medications is causing an uptick in deaths or other adverse events.