The explosion of the prescription drug industry

I've been meaning to post on the issue of prescription drugs, especially since reading Mish Shedlock's blog post this weekend. Citing a 2008 study (released last week) by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Shedlock notes that:

Almost half of Americans took at least one prescription drug per month in 2008, an increase of 10 percent over the past decade, a U.S. study found.

One of every five children ages 11 or younger took at least one medication each month in 2008, led by asthma and allergy treatments, according to the survey released today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among those ages 60 or older, 37 percent used five or more prescriptions per month.

The numbers, especially among the older individuals, are stunning. Each age group has its own favorite medications--Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) drugs among the adolescents, antidepressants for the middle-aged folks, and cholesterol-lowering pills for the 60-and-over crew. A full 45% of Americans over 60 are on a cholesterol drug of some sort.

I'm (for once) not honestly sure what I think the implications of this are. Are we really getting sicker (or more unhappy) on a broad basis? If so, why? Or, as Mish Shedlock opines, are the changing patterns of drug advertising--from a doctor-driven model to a demand-driven model focused on TV advertising--more behind the increase? For me at least, I find the demand-driven model unsettling at best. But maybe it's a symptom rather than the true disease.

No matter what, with debate over health care costs here to stay (especially as the baby boomers enter retirement age), I expect the debate over prescription drugs to heat up as well.

[Bloomberg]