As we all know, most elderly Americans are actively taking multiple prescriptions, with the average being around 5 per patient. This practice, called polypharmacy, can become very dangerous, especially when most elderly are routinely taking non-prescription (OTC) medications as well. OTC medications like; laxatives, sedatives, antihistamines and cold/flu medicines can cause serious side effects when taken with other prescription medications. Common prescription medications for elderly are focused around blood thinning, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and arthritis just to name a few, with each medicine having very specific pharmacokinetics (how it works). It is extremely important that our elderly are counseled and educated more on the potential dangers of taking multiple medications.
Being able to fully understand and grasp the complex workings of medicine in general, or the "Ins" and "Outs", takes years of schooling and just as much practice. Your average elderly American is not trained in the dangers of engaging in polypharmacy, and too often they are not properly counseled by their primary care physician. In the United States, roughly 15% of elderly hospitalization cases involve complications due to adverse side effects from engaging in polypharmacy. This number is way to high, and it should raise the eyebrows of our patient healthcare team as a whole. If the primary care physician accidentally drops the ball, it is crucial that either a nurse, pharmacist or health care specialist be there to provide a check and balance to the situation. If all of these members were to be more proactive regarding this issue, I think we would see a dramatic decrease in the number of hospitalization cases involving adverse side effects.
Along with being proactive, it is critical that elderly patients are more aware about what they are putting in their body. I understand that fore many it is difficult to understand the entire complexity of their drugs, but some means of education has to be required. Whether it be from a pharmacist/physician counseling a patient one on one with their medications or the patient reading/researching on their own...education is needed. Obviously the most safe and preferred method would be counseling from an educated health care professional, but self-educating can be helpful as well. All in all, I feel that more awareness is needed when it comes the common practice of polypharmacy. Too many elderly are engaging in dangerous acts of taking multiple medication for multiple issues all the while not fully understanding the full dangers of their actions.
References:
http://www.naturalnews.com/024538_elderly_drugs_medications.html
www.ucop.edu/agrp/docs/sf_drugs.ppt
