Americans fill about 4.5 billion prescriptions every year, at a price of greater than $323 billion. But what are we really shopping for? In 11 states, the highest prescriptions are opioid ache tablets which are mixtures of acetaminophen and hydrocodone (model names Vicodin and Norco), in response to new data from GoodRx, an internet prescription price service.
The firm regarded on the high 10 medicine prescribed in every state from March 2017 to February 2018 after which introduced the info as a map.
“There’s a geography to medications,” stated Thomas Goetz, chief of analysis at GoodRx. “Our goal is to start bringing more transparency to drugs and drug pricing information.”
In greater than half of states, Synthroid and its generics — to deal with hypothyroidism — got here in at No. 1. About 123 million prescriptions for the drug have been written in 2016. And regardless of recent controversy questioning its effectiveness within the aged, greater than 15 percent of older adults are prescribed the drug.
Though opioid prescriptions seem like on the decline, Vicodin and Norco stay widespread, particularly within the South. In Tennessee, nonetheless, Suboxone, a drugs used to deal with opioid habit, is much more widespread. Oddly, Adderall and generic variations of the drugs for consideration deficit and hyperactivity dysfunction are probably the most pharmaceuticals in South Carolina.
Drugs to deal with hypertension and ldl cholesterol have been additionally extensively prescribed.
Geoffrey Joyce, director of well being coverage on the Schaeffer Center on the University of Southern California, warns that the info represented within the map may give a deceptive image of prescription drug patterns. It appears to be like at particular person drug merchandise as a substitute of bigger lessons of medication used to deal with a given medical challenge. Overall, when comparable varieties of medicine are grouped collectively the most typical prescriptions are for medicine to deal with hypertension, ache and psychological well being points, in response to latest knowledge from IQVIA, a well being knowledge firm.
GoodRx presents reductions on pharmaceuticals and gives an internet software that permits shoppers to check what a drug will price at native pharmacies. Its state-by-state knowledge come from a number of sources, together with pharmacies and insurers, and replicate tens of millions of prescriptions.
