US Consumer Reports evaluates best drugs for 35 conditions

Improvements in communications are sorely needed between doctors and patients, especially when it comes to prescription drugs. That is one of many findings in the January issue of Consumer Reports, in which the not-for-profit group summarizes key findings from its Best Buy Drugs initiative about drugs for 35 conditions including Alzheimer's and heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, insomnia, menopause, migraine and overactive bladder. The report is part of a broader effort by CR to make sure that consumers get the best medicines for their health-care dollar, it says.

CR points out that consumers are not always getting the best information from their doctors, in addition to what they are hearing from the $5.6 billion direct-to-consumer drug advertising campaigns by the pharmaceutical firms. The report, entitled Best Medicines for Less, outlines the steps consumers can take to remedy the situation.

According to the January report, nearly half of all US adults regularly take at least one prescription drug and 18% take three or more. CRs free analysis is available on-line at: www.consumerreports.org/health. CR's analysis of many classes of prescription drugs has uncovered, among other things, the following: