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Americans have become increasingly medicated since the turn of the century, according to a new study. Fully 59% of U.S. adults were on at least one prescription drug in the years 2011 and 2012, and 15% took five or more. A dozen years earlier, 51% of adults filled at least one prescription and 8% filled at least five, federal survey data show. (Kaplan, 11/3)

In a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that the prevalence of prescription drug use among people 20 and older had risen to 59 percent in 2012 from 51 percent just a dozen years earlier. During the same period, the percentage of people taking five or more prescription drugs nearly doubled, to 15 percent from 8 percent. One likely factor driving the increased use: obesity. (Dennis, 11/3)

But “something beyond the aging of the U.S. population appears to be driving the increase in prescription drug use,” Kantor said. Many factors are at play, she said. New drugs enter the market and old drugs lose patent protection and become less costly, she noted. Meanwhile, patterns of prescription drug use evolve with scientific advances and with changes in clinical guidelines and policies regarding drug marketing and promotion. (Doyle, 11/3)

Prescription drug use is rising across the United States. More people are taking medications and they're taking more of them. A study published Tuesday by researchers at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health shows that 59 percent of adults used a prescription drug in a 30-day period. That's up from just 50 percent when the survey was last conducted a decade earlier. (Kodjak, 11/3)