More Fatal Domestic Medication Errors
SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- Asking patients to monitor their own medications can be fatal, as exemplified by the death of "The Dark Knight" actor Heath Ledger, U.S. researchers said. Sociologists at the University of California, San Diego, examined nearly 50 million U.S. death certificates from 1983 to 2004, focusing on a subset of 200,000 deaths from medication errors. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found a 3,196 percent increase in fatal domestic medication errors involving alcohol and/or street drugs. "The decades-long shift in the location of medication consumption from clinical to domestic settings is linked to a dramatic increase in fatal medication errors," principal author David P. Phillips said in a statement. "Increasingly, people take their medications at home, away from hospitals and clinics. But most studies of fatal medication errors have focused on those clinical settings." The study found non-domestic fatal errors not involving alcohol or street drugs showed the smallest increase, 5 percent, while domestic medication fatalities not involving alcohol or street drugs increased by 564 percent and non-domestic medication fatalities involving alcohol and/or street drugs increased by 555 percent.
SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- Asking patients to monitor their own medications can be fatal, as exemplified by the death of "The Dark Knight" actor Heath Ledger, U.S. researchers said. Sociologists at the University of California, San Diego, examined nearly 50 million U.S. death certificates from 1983 to 2004, focusing on a subset of 200,000 deaths from medication errors. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found a 3,196 percent increase in fatal domestic medication errors involving alcohol and/or street drugs. "The decades-long shift in the location of medication consumption from clinical to domestic settings is linked to a dramatic increase in fatal medication errors," principal author David P. Phillips said in a statement. "Increasingly, people take their medications at home, away from hospitals and clinics. But most studies of fatal medication errors have focused on those clinical settings." The study found non-domestic fatal errors not involving alcohol or street drugs showed the smallest increase, 5 percent, while domestic medication fatalities not involving alcohol or street drugs increased by 564 percent and non-domestic medication fatalities involving alcohol and/or street drugs increased by 555 percent.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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