20
fhea.com Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Inc., April 2015
(MRSA), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Gold-standard
treatments were also in short supply during the
study period, including aztreonam and trimetho-
prim/sulfamethoxazole.
Reasons for the shortages included delays or
problems with manufacturing and shortages of raw
materials. In some cases, researchers said, if a med-
ication is not used often, even though it is essential
for some patients, manufacturers may delay or stop
producing it.
Dr. May said she expects shortages to continue to
increase in the future, and if we don't have a policy
that plans for actions on this issue there may be pa-
tient deaths and other serious problems related to
the shortages.
Read the abstract of the study.
Patients Prescribed Painkillers Using
Higher Doses for Longer Periods
Pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts reports
that nearly 60% of patients taking narcotic pain -
killers prescribed for treatment of long-term
conditions were also receiving prescriptions for
muscle relaxants or anti-anxiety medications that
could cause dangerous and potentially fatal reac-
tions.
1
Among these mixtures, the report said, al-
most a third of patients were prescribed benzodi-
azepines along with an opioid, the most common
cause of overdose deaths involving multiple drugs.
Opioids are involved in approximately 70% of acci-
dental drug overdoses involving prescription
drugs.
2
The company examined more than 36 million
pharmacy claims from 6.8 million insured Americans
of all ages who filled at least one prescription for an
C
ontinued from page 18
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