Pharma Nation: Americans will spend half their lives taking prescription drugs, study predicts
UNIVERSITY PARK. PENNSYLVANIA — It’s hard to argue that Americans don’t love their pills. Recent estimates tell us that over 60 percent of U.S. adults take prescription drugs, and over 45 percent have taken a prescribed drug over the prior 30 days. Now, worrying new predictive research from Penn State reports young Americans born in 2019 can expect to spend a significant portion of their lives medicated.
In fact, study authors estimate these young Americans will likely spend more years on prescription meds than being married or receiving an education!
Led by Jessica Ho, associate professor of sociology and demography at Penn State, the research also points to some gender disparities. American males will be on prescription drugs for 48 percent of their lives. That percentage balloons to 60% for females.
“As an American, I’d like to know what medications I’m putting in my body and how long I can expect to take them,” says Prof. […]
I am a permanently disabled person, and have to take pills for my many pains and anxiety and caould not function without them. I could not do my gardening at all, and I depend upon that gardening for over 50% of my food. I am very happy that I can get prescriptions and thank God for them. I would be dead now if I could not get those medications; and have no bad side effects which I cannot live with.
This trend represents success in at least three areas: The advancement of medical science to treat maladies, the medicating of the population to address the ills of the social/economic system, and the pathologizing of normal life. The first is to be lauded, whereas the second and third should be viewed with suspicion.