A quarter of all prescriptions go unfilled

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A new study out of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston looked at drug prescriptions written for more than seventy-five thousand patients over a period of year.

Twenty-two percent of them were never filled.

And when it came to first time prescriptions specifically, twenty-eight percent were never taken to the pharmacy.

Researchers say not filling prescriptions was common even for people with chronic conditions with serious health consequences, like diabetes.

One reason why may be because when there’s few or no symptoms — like with high blood pressure — many people don’t see the need to take a medication.

Researchers also say cost may play a role, particularly when the patient isn’t sure why the drug was prescribed in the first place.

All the patients in the study had prescription drug coverage, but, some medications may have had high co-payments or weren’t covered.

The findings appear in he journal of general internal medicine.