Nearly 70 Percent Americans on at Least one Prescription Drug

About seven in ten adults in the U.S. are on at least one prescription drug, with many taking two kinds of prescribed medications. Most common medicines include antidepressants, antibiotics and painkillers, a recent study said.

Americans spent about $250 billion on prescription drugs in 2009, which accounted for about 12 percent of total personal health care expenditure that year. Researchers from Mayo Clinic who conducted the study say that spending on prescription drugs is likely to increase in the coming years. The data for the study was obtained from Rochester Epidemiology Project in Olmsted County, Minn.

"Often when people talk about health conditions they're talking about chronic conditions such as heart disease or diabetes. However, the second most common prescription was for antidepressants - that suggests mental health is a huge issue and is something we should focus on. And the third most common drugs were opioids, which is a bit concerning considering their addicting nature," Dr. Jennifer St. Sauver, Ph.D., a member of the Mayo Clinic Population Health Program and one of the study authors.

Antibiotics were the most extensively used drugs with about 17 percent of the study group using them. Antidepressants and opioids accounted for about 13 percent of prescription medications.

Drugs used to control chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes accounted for 11 percent while vaccines came in fifth.

The study found that women and senior adults were more likely to be on prescription opioids while people younger than 19 years had high rates of vaccine use and asthma drugs.

About one in every four women aged between 50 and 64 is on an antidepressant. Previous research has shown that suicide among people aged around 50 years has doubled between 1999 and 2010.

The rate of prescription drug use increased with advancing age for both men and women, the study found.

"As you get older you tend to get more prescriptions, and women tend to get more prescriptions than men," Dr. St. Sauver said in news release.

The study is published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.