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Older adults are taking more medications than ever to treat their medical conditions. Here are the statistics on polypharmacy & how to help you or a loved one prevent medication misuse.
If you regularly take a combination of prescription pills, over-the-counter-meds, dietary supplements, or herbal remedies, managing them can feel overwhelming.
Polypharmacy is defined as the use of multiple medications at the same time. It’s especially common among seniors (adults aged 65 and older), and its practice is on the rise. Between 1988 and 2018, the percentage of seniors taking 5 or more medications tripled from 12.8% to 39%.
How do we know when it’s all too much? It goes without saying that some drugs are necessary to treat and make certain medical conditions manageable, but there are concerns surrounding additional medications doing more harm than good. Polypharmacy has been associated with an increased risk of adverse drug reactions, functional decline, falls, and cognitive impairment.
Understanding which scenario we fall under starts with learning what polypharmacy is and how we, especially elderly adults, encounter it in the first place.
In most cases, the path to polypharmacy is a gradual, but slippery, slope.
If a patient visits her doctor with complaints of negative side effects from blood thinners, for example, she may be prescribed a new drug to treat unwanted symptoms. If the new drug makes her queasy, her doctor may then prescribe an anti-nausea medication. The cycle continues until the patient is on many medications at one given time.
Many people genuinely need several medications to manage illness. However, when polypharmacy goes wrong, patients may face the following negative effects:
Hero gives you peace of mind with an automatic pill dispenser that makes it simple and easy for your loved ones to take the right medication at the right time, every time.
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