Majority of Drug-Related Hospitalizations Linked to Small Group of Drugs

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that more than two thirds of drug-related hospitalizations are caused due to a small group of drugs.

According to figures released by CDC, nearly 100,000 cases of drug-related hospitalization among the elderly over 65 years of age occur in United States every year. CDC's Dan Budnitz said that majority of the cases can be attributed to some commonly used drugs rather than high risk drugs.

Researchers from CDC used data from the agency's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-Cooperative Adverse Drug Event Surveillance project which was performed between 2007 and 2009. The researchers found over 5,000 cases of drug related hospitalizations in a sample of 58 hospitals across the country.

They found that four medications were responsible for more than 67 percent of all emergency hospitalizations with warfarin accounting for more than 33 percent of the cases. Insulin (13.9 percent), oral antiplatelet agents (13.3 percent) and oral hypoglycemic agents (10.7 percent) were also commonly found to have led to the hospitalizations.


Source: Medindia