Family physician Mary Frank couldn't understand why one elderly patient with high-blood pressure wasn't responding to his medication. She had been steadily increasing his dose, but his blood pressure remained unstable.
Finally, the man admitted he had been sharing his pills with his wife. He also would stop taking his medication a few days before his appointment hoping his blood pressure would be higher so that he and his wife could then split a higher-dose drug.
But the practice put the couple at risk of a stroke or heart attack. "This is not something people should take lightly. It's truly dangerous and frustrating," said Frank, of Rohnert Park, Calif.
When it comes to prescription medications, many people embrace the adage to share and share alike. Armed with good intentions and largely unaware of the dangers, they gladly hand over leftover antibiotics, asthma inhalers, antidepressants, insulin and pain pills. After all, if the drugs worked for them, then perhaps they'll help similarly suffering family members, friends or colleagues. And, considering the drugs' expense, throwing away excess, out-of-date or ineffective pills can seem like a waste.
Some consumers even appear to be sharing medications for prolonged periods of time out of necessity. With the costs of drugs and medical care rising, they have trouble paying for their own prescriptions or the doctor visits required to obtain them.
Researchers say those most likely to share prescription drugs are the poor and the elderly, as well as family members who have a common chronic illness, such as diabetes.
"If you ask people why they are doing this, they say they have no other option," said Chien-Wen Tseng, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii who has studied the ways people deal with rising prescription drug prices. "To many of them, it's better than not taking the medication at all."
Such cost-saving tactics have not been extensively studied, but dozens of interviews with researchers, doctors, pharmacists and senior centers in California and across the country suggest the problem is growing.
Moreover, the number of pills that can be shared is multiplying; almost half of Americans take a prescription drug and 17% take three or more. The dangers of sharing medications may be overlooked, experts say, by a public overly confident in its ability to self-medicate -- a perception amplified by the dramatic rise in direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising in recent years.
