Prescription Drugs (Library in a Book) - Hardcover

Pampel, Dr Fred C

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0816080143 ISBN 13: 9780816080144

Publisher: Facts on File, 2010

Synopsis

Prescription drugs help people manage such medical conditions as severe depression, high blood pressure, asthma, arthritis, and diabetes. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, adults spend nearly $73 billion per year on prescription drugs. Pharmaceutical companies have increased demand for their products by advertising to patients and marketing to the physicians who prescribe drugs practices that critics condemn. The more prescription drugs a person takes, the more likely the drugs will interact in ways that are harmful. Errors in prescribing are another hazard, and even legitimate prescription drugs have recently been subject to recalls due to contamination. Are prescription drugs getting to the people who need them most? Are they being overprescribed and overused? Are prices too high? Prescription Drugs introduces readers to the controversies associated with popular prescription drugs and shows how Americans have attempted to balance the goals of access and safety.

About this title

About the Author:

Fred C. Pampel holds a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is currently a professor of sociology and a research associate of the Institute of Behavior Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research has focused on topics of population aging, inequality, health, and social policy. Pampel has published 14 books for undergraduate and scholarly audiences and more than 60 articles in the nation's top scholarly presses and social science journals. For Facts On File, he is the author of Racial Profiling, Threats to Food Safety, Drugs and Sports, Disaster Response, Rights of the Elderly, and Tobacco Industry and Smoking, Revised Edition, all in the Library in a Book series.

From Booklist:

This entry in the Library in a Book series offers material that would be useful to students doing research on the controversies related to prescription drugs. Part 1 provides an overview followed by a chronology, biographies, and a glossary. Part 2, “Guide to Further Research,” includes an annotated bibliography and a directory of organizations and agencies. Appendixes contain documents from the Federal Drug Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. --Mary Ellen Quinn

About this edition

• Publisher: Facts on File
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0816080143
• ISBN 13: 9780816080144
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 284