Massive Detrimental Effects Detrimental effects have become so extensive as to prompt the use of the term 'iatroepidemic2'. Reporting in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Lucien Leape of Harvard School of Public Health, has calculated that '180,000 people die in the U.S. each year partly as a result of iatrogenic injury, the equivalent of three jumbo-jet crashes every two days3'. In another issue, the Journal of the American Medical Association points out that injury from medical treatment in the U.S. 'dwarfs the annual automobile accident mortality of 45,000 and accounts for more deaths than all other accidents combined4'. An Economic Drain Medication-caused disorders produce a substantial economic drain. This amount is nearly twice that spent on diabetes treatment and near the amount for cardiovascular disease5.
Iatrogenic disease can be due to many factors.
The hospital environment is especially conducive to medical hazards. Studies including those conducted at Harvard Medical School show that as many as 36 per cent of patients admitted to hospitals suffered iatrogenic injury with up to 25 per cent of those being serious or fatal. Up to half of these injuries were related to the use of medication6. The results of an analysis of cardiac arrests at a teaching hospital found that 64 per cent were preventable. Inappropriate use of drugs was the leading cause7.