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Side effect labels hamper compliance, study says

LTC Liability Monitor, February 16, 2006

A study released two weeks ago in the journal Clinical Therapeutics suggested the wording on prescription drug side effect labels exacerbates the problem of people who don't take their medication as prescribed. That in turn leads to $100 billion in unnecessary costs and an estimated 125,000 deaths a year, researchers stated.

Conducted at Stanford University, the study showed subjects would stop taking medication because of the perceived risk of negative side effects, many of which were not fully explained on labels, according to the university-based Stanford Report. "A 'most common' side effect could be fatal, yet be one in a million," one researcher noted.

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