America Is More Medicated Than Ever

Americans popped more pills than ever last year.

Total number of prescriptions in the U.S. increased to 4.02 billion (at a cost of $319.9 billion) in 2011 from 3.99 billion (at a cost of $308.6 billion) in 2010, according to a new report in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience (h/t Tim Mak).

The journal's editor in chief Craig Lindsley says the data paint a grim portrait.

When one looks at the trends and medications, the United States is suffering from poor lifestyle/diet choices (based on sales of lipid regulators and antidiabetic medications) and an unprecedented increase in patients taking antidepressants and antipsychotics. Importantly, increases in both sales and prescriptions dispensed are positive signs for a struggling pharmaceutical industry.

Lindsley adds the numbers could have been ever higher.

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