The report in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, published by the American Medical Association, says that the number of deaths and serious injuries from prescription and over-the-counter drugs climbed from 34,966 to 89,842.
Thomas J. Moore, the study's lead author and a senior scientist for drug safety and policy at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices of Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania, said, "There is plenty of blame to go around."
"This is a direct set of data that shows that the system is failing and it is getting worse. We are in denial about drug safety," he added.
Most of the drugs causing the problems are not those that have been pulled from the market such as Vioxx, Remicade, and the antidepressant Paxil. The most frequent suspect drugs in death were pain narcotics insulin, Oxycodone sold generically as oxycodone, and Fentanyl.
Researchers analyzed FDA data on serious side effects between January 1998 and December 2005. A total of 467,809 serious complications were found. Reported deaths nearly tripled, rising from 5,519 to 15,107.
The painkillers were among 15 drugs most often linked with deaths in the study.
"This growing toll of serious injury shows that the existing system is not adequately protecting patients and underscores the importance of recent reports urging far-reaching legislative, policy and institutional changes," the authors said.
More women were found to be the victims than men. Nearly 55.5 percent of women suffered side effects of drugs compared to 45.5 percent. Children were involved in 7.4 percent of the problems.
Blaming the increasing number of prescriptions for this problem, the authors also said other factors include the increase in public attention to drug safety and use of the Internet to buy drugs.
