CHICAGO - Older adults in the United States are popping prescription pills, over-the-counter drugs and dietary supplements in record numbers, and in combinations that could be deadly, researchers said yesterday.
They said more than half of US adults aged 57 to 85 are using five or more prescription or nonprescription drugs, and one in 25 are taking them in combinations that could cause dangerous drug interactions.
"Older adults in the United States use medicine, and they use a lot of it," said Dr. Stacy Tessler Lindau of the University of Chicago Medical Center, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"While medications are often beneficial, they are not always safe," she said.
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