At the APHA Annual Meeting

Monday, Oct. 31, 2011, 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Evidence of an epidemic of adverse drug reactions will be presented and discussed at a session organized by the Section at the APHA meetings on Oct. 31 from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.  Session 3157.0, “Adverse Drug Reactions: extent of public health risks,” will feature Julie Zito, Howard Brody, MD, John Abramson, Donald Light, and U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders. Sanders will discuss a bill he has introduced that would use prizes to increase the safety and efficacy of drugs.

Don Light, a professor of social medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, will summarize evidence in “The Risks of Prescription Drugs” that prescription drugs are a leading cause of falls, accidents, hospitalizations and deaths. He will explain the Risk Proliferation Syndrome behind the epidemic. Julie Zito will discuss her research on the proliferation of antipsychotics prescribed to poor children. Howard Brody, who co-authored (with Light) “The Inverse Benefit Law” in AJPH this year (101:399), will discuss the role of patents in increasing risks to patients. John Abramson, who teaches at Harvard and authored “Overdosed America”, will present new research on misrepresentations of risks to patients in the medical literature on which physicians rely to