3 ms·
> 4 out of 5 pharmacy-filled prescriptions is not 4 out of 5 prescriptions As opposed to the non-pharmacy filled prescriptions people pick up? Your argument i
by CommitSyn 3y ago
> 4 out of 5 pharmacy-filled prescriptions is not 4 out of 5 prescriptions
As opposed to the non-pharmacy filled prescriptions people pick up?
Your argument is that the statistic only works because so many people don't pick up meds their doctor calls in for them?
I'm not a statistician so maybe I'm not understanding correctly, but that seems like a very weak argument.
- hervature 3y agoWhile 4/5 is shocking any way you look at it, the stronger argument for why this stat is misleading is because it does not take into account how long the prescription lasts. Anecdotally, I was given basically a week's worth after all 3 of my surgeries. Tough to find stats on these things but I could see opiod prescriptions being 2x the number of prescriptions because the number of "doses" are half what other non-addictive substances are. Still, that would make opiods 2/3 of pharmacy-filled "doses".
- skeeter2020 3y agoYes, lots of opiod prescriptions for like 4-7 days, but there's got to be more for chronic treatment when you factor in thewy might be 30-90 days between refills.
- CommitSyn 3y agoWhile that is a good point, there are many other frequently prescribed drugs with shorter rx periods - antibiotics, benzodiazipines, sleep medication, emergency medications like inhalers and Epi pens to name a few. If you look at the list of most commonly prescribed drugs¹, opioids aren't even in the top 15, which makes that statistic even more concerning, albeit obvious in hindsight. 1: https://clincalc.com/DrugStats/Top300Drugs.aspx https://clincalc.com/DrugStats/Top300Drugs.aspx