It’s no secret that the Great Recession is prompting a growing number of people to abandon prescriptions at pharmacies. Yet another analysis finds that nearly 3.3 percent of all scrips were abandoned between July and September 2008, just as the economic malaise began spiraling downward, according to a study in The Annals of Internal Medicine (see the abstract and a summary).

Not surprisingly, the abandonment rate has since climbed. In the first six months of this year, it nearly hit 10 percent of all new scrips for brand-name meds, according to Wolters Kluwer (look here). Nonetheless, by sifting through prescriptions bottled for insured customers of CVS Caremark, which runs a pharmacy benefits manager and a national pharmacy and funded the study, the researchers detected the types of meds that are being left at the counter.

Here are some factoids, courtesy of HealthDay: More than 10.3 million scrips were filled for 5.2 million patients, average patient age was 47 years and average family income was $61,762. If a co-pay was $50 or more, people were 4.5 times more likely to abandon a scrip; at $40, they were 3.4 times more likely to do so. Scrips with a co-pay of less than $10 were abandoned just 1.4 percent of the time. People between 18 and 34 years were most likely to abandon scrips, newest users of meds were 2.74 times more likely to do so and scrips delivered electronically were 1.64 times more likely to be abandoned

Scrips for cough, cold, allergy, asthma and skin meds were most frequently abandoned, most likely because the drugs are used on an as-needed basis. Insulin scrips were abandoned 2.2 percent of the time, while antipsychotic scrips were abandoned 2.3 percent of the time. The drugs least likely to be abandoned included opiates for pain; blood pressure meds; birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy, and blood-thinners, according to the study. As we have noted previously, however, one pharmacist has told us that parents appear less likely to abandon scrips for their children.