For the first time in at least a decade, the nation's consumers are trying to get by on fewer prescription drugs.
As people around the country respond to financial and economic hard times by juggling the cost of necessities like groceries and housing, drugs are sometimes having to wait.
"People are having to choose between gas, meals and medication," said Dr. James King, the chairman of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a national professional group. He also runs his own family practice in rural Selmer, Tenn.
"I've seen patients today who said they stopped taking their Lipitor, their cholesterol-lowering medicine, because they can't afford it," Dr. King said one recent morning.
"I have patients who have stopped taking their osteoporosis medication."
On Tuesday, the drug giant Pfizer, which makes Lipitor, the world's top-selling prescription medicine, said United States sales of that drug were down 13 percent in the third quarter of this year.
Through August of this year, the number of all prescriptions dispensed in the United States was lower than in the first eight months of last year, according to a recent analysis of data from IMS Health, a research firm that tracks prescriptions.
Although other forces are also in play, like safety concerns over some previously popular drugs and the transition of some prescription medications to over-the-counter sales, many doctors and other experts say consumer belt-tightening is a big factor in the prescription downturn.
The trend, if it continues, could have potentially profound implications.
If enough people try to save money by forgoing drugs, controllable conditions could escalate into major medical problems. That could eventually raise the nation's total health care bill and lower the nation's standard of living.
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