Rising prescription drug use has quietly become one of the defining features of American health. A new study in JAMA Network Open, published on 15 September 2026, shows that 56.4 per cent of US adults reported taking at least one prescription drug in the past 30 days during the latest survey period. Back in 1999 and 2000, the figure was 46.7 per cent.

The research letter comes from a team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. It extends an earlier analysis that covered 1999 to 2012, and it brings the picture up to March 2020.

Rising Prescription Drug Use Across Two Decades

The team drew on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, known as NHANES. Their analysis covered 58,201 adults aged 20 or older. Interviewers visited homes and asked people to show their medication containers, or to name what they took when the packaging was not to hand.

The results point one way. Use of at least one prescription drug went from 46.7 per cent to 56.4 per cent. Use of two or more rose from 30.7 per cent to 43.3 per cent. The increases showed up across age groups, both sexes and every racial and ethnic group the researchers could measure.

That consistency matters. It suggests the growing reliance on prescription medicines is not confined to one corner of the population. It runs through the whole adult community.

Polypharmacy Moves From Rare to Routine

The sharpest change came in polypharmacy, which the study defines as taking five or more prescription drugs. It more than doubled overall, from 7.8 per cent to 16.7 per cent.

Older adults sit at the centre of this growing reliance on prescription medicines. Among people aged 65 or older, polypharmacy climbed from 21.9 per cent to 40.7 per cent. In other words, about four in ten older Americans now take five or more prescription medicines. Young adults tell a different story. Among those aged 20 to 39, the rate stayed low, although it still rose from 1.3 per cent to 3.4 per cent.

Which Medicines Are Driving the Trend

Heart and metabolic drugs led the way in rising prescription drug use. Antihypertensives rose from 18.3 per cent to 30.0 per cent of adults. Antihyperlipidemics went from 7.5 per cent to 20.3 per cent, nearly tripling. Antidiabetic drugs climbed from 4.6 per cent to 11.1 per cent.

Other classes moved too. Psychotherapeutic agents doubled from 7.3 per cent to 14.7 per cent, with antidepressants accounting for most of that, rising from 6.8 per cent to 14.2 per cent. Anticonvulsants quadrupled, from 2.1 per cent to 8.5 per cent. Central nervous system agents as a group grew from 14.0 per cent to 20.2 per cent. Anticoagulants and antiplatelets, which mostly reflect anticoagulants, more than doubled from 2.0 per cent to 4.7 per cent.

Not everything went up. Sex hormone use fell from 9.8 per cent to 4.5 per cent, and antiarrhythmics dropped from 5.0 per cent to 2.8 per cent. Overall, hormone use held fairly steady.

What Sits Behind the Numbers

The authors are careful here. They did not test why prescriptions have risen, so the study cannot name a cause. They note only that the jump in heart and metabolic drugs fits with evolving clinical guidelines, wider treatment options and a heavier burden of chronic disease in the US.

There are limits to the data as well. The survey did not fully capture over the counter products, so the true level of medicine use is probably higher than reported. The authors also warn that NHANES no longer collects prescription data, which is why they call for continued national surveillance.

Still, the direction is hard to miss. Rising prescription drug use has not levelled off, and every extra medicine adds another layer for patients and clinicians to track. The findings also invite a question that sits upstream of the pharmacy counter. How many of these prescriptions respond to conditions that might have been headed off earlier?

Why the Trend Deserves Attention

For families, this is a reminder to keep a clear, current list of every medicine a person takes, especially for older relatives. For policymakers, the letter offers a benchmark of long term prescribing patterns at a time when national tracking has stopped.

The study will not settle the debate over whether America takes too many medicines or too few. It does show, with two decades of nationally representative data, that rising prescription drug use is now the norm rather than the exception.

Source: jamanetwork