Spending on prescription drugs to treat depression, anxiety, pain, schizophrenia and other conditions climbed from $7.9 billion in 1997 to $20 billion in 2004 ? over a 150 percent increase, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The costs of treating heart disease and cancer rose markedly between 2000 and 2004, from $62 billion to $90 billion and $42 billion to $62 billion, respectively, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
In 2004, 1.2 million hospitalized patients experienced an adverse drug event, 90 percent of which were due to a side effect from a medication that was properly administered, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the US? largest HIV/AIDS healthcare, prevention and education provider, which operates free AIDS treatment clinics in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia, chastised US drug giant, Abbott Laboratories for its ?quid pro quo? offer earlier today to the Government of Thailand to lower its price for Abbott?s key AIDS drug, Aluvia (a heat-stable tablet version of Kaletra) to approximately USD$1000 per patient per year?an offer contingent upon Abbott?s demand that Thailand immediately halt issuing compulsory licenses for the generic manufacture of this lifesaving drug.
The long-term effects of a disaster on physical and psychological health are the focus of a new study of rescue workers who provided assistance after the explosion of a fireworks depot in the Netherlands in May 2000.
Primary schoolchildren should not be routinely screened for obesity and overweight in the absence of effective treatment, finds research in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
When it comes to cholesterol-lowering drugs, more is better. At least, that?s what heart doctors and heart patients have been hearing in recent years. And as a result, more patients are taking higher doses of drugs called statins ? leading to lower heart and stroke risk, but higher prescription drug costs and more frequent side effects.
Oriental therapies can help chronically ill people stay strong and reduce stress levels during epidemics, according to research in the April issue of Journal of Clinical Nursing.
Correcting social, economic and health-care inequalities may have the most significant impact in reducing survival differences in colorectal cancer between African-Americans and Caucasians, according to a new study.
The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report has indicated serious flaws in the public health system ranging from lack of life-saving drugs and equipment in public hospitals to malfunctioning of casualty and emergency wards in the city.