Each patient is unique in their genetic make up. Because of this their response to drug therapy will also vary and can result in potentially life threatening outcomes:
EVERY SECOND COUNTS
You Cannot Afford the Risk
Drug-to-drug interactions are also pose an important risk to adverse drug events. This makes the aging population vulnerable because of the large number of drugs they are taking:
- Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) cause more than 106,000 deaths per year in the US, making it the 4th leading cause of death.
- ADEs cause more than 2.2 million seri-ous adverse events per year in hospital-ized patients.
- More than 50% of new drugs have seri-ous, undetected adverse effects at the time of FDA approval.
- Studies show that the risk of an ADE is 33% higher in people aged 50 to 59 than it is in people aged 40 to 49.
- 28% of all emergency department visits were due to adverse drug reactions.
- 90% of all persons 65 or older are taking at least one medication per week, 40% use five or more, and 12% ten or more.
- ADE risk increases exponentially in patients taking 4 or more drugs. Patients with chronic medical conditions taking multiple medications face the highest ADE risk.
But there is hope: more than 75% of Americans have genetic variations that increase the risk of an ADEs that CAN be tested for!
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