Posted by Bill L on July 2, 2001, at 11:29:37
I just looked at the site rxlist.com which shows the top 200 drugs for each year. The ranking is by number of prescriptions dispensed. Not by dollars. I thought it would be interesting to look at the trends for some of the drugs that we discuss on this board. The first number is the ranking for 2000. The second is the ranking for 1999. Although Zoloft was the most prescribed antidepressant in 2000, it went down from 11th to 18th. That's because there were other new drugs (which are not antidepressants) at the top of the list.
The drugs are shown in order of scripts written in 2000. For example; Zoloft was 18th in 2000 from 11th in 1999.
Zoloft 18, 11
Prozac 20, 10
Paxil 22, 15
Ambien 44, 40
Trazodone 58, 191
Celexa 62, 104
Neurontin 63, 66
Wellbutrin SR 68, 65
Effexor XR 78, 106
Adderal 96, 138
Serzone 149, 129
BuSpar 178, 93
Remeron 183, not on chartSo it looks like the drugs with the biggest upward movement in the charts for 2000 were (in order): Trazodone, Celexa, Adderal, and Effexor. Since I didn't see Remeron on the chart for 1999, I don't know how much it moved up. BuSpar had the biggest drop.
I don't know if this information has much value since the best drug for any particular person could be one of the least prescribed drugs. For example BuSpar had a big drop but I know that it helps some people. But I just thought that the list was interesting.
poster:Bill L
thread:68726
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010701/msgs/68726.html