The number of drug shortages affecting emergency care in the U.S. rose 373 percent from 2008 to 2014, according to a study in Academic Emergency Medicine.
That is a sharp turnaround from the trend from 2002 to 2007, when such shortages fell.
Shortages occur when medications are approved, but manufacturers cannot meet demands or no longer make the drugs.
"Many of those medications are for life-threatening conditions, and for some drugs no substitute is available," said Jesse Pines, MD, senior author of the study. "This means that in some cases, emergency department physicians may not have the medications they need to help people who are in serious need of them."