This week’s blog is based an on excellent article from MDSCentral (and an excerpt from HCPro’s book, The Long-Term Care Nursing Desk Reference.) While the book was written for nurses working in a long-term care setting, this information is valuable to family caregivers, as well.
What is polypharmacy? Quite simply, it is the use of multiple drugs simultaneously.
Why is it an important concern for you and your aging parent?
It is very common for those over age 65 to have more than one chronic condition, and thus be on more than one medication. The National Council on Patient Information and Education states that “Almost 40% of seniors are unable to read prescription label, and 67% are unable to understand information given to them.” Given those statistics, it is likely that many elderly persons are not taking their medications properly. While using the right drugs properly can alleviate symptoms, cure infection and disease, and improve quality of life, there can also be negative consequences:
- Adverse drug reactions
- Drug-to-drug interactions
- Noncompliance with the drug regimen
- Decline of quality of life or functional ability
- Deterioration in mental status
Given those statistics, it is critical that a family caregiver do all they can to prevent negative consequences from occurring by:
- Review your parent’s drug regimen monthly. An elderly parents’ drugs and dosages can change every time they go to their doctor. It can be very confusing for them. So, take the time to review the drugs, frequency, problems, etc.
- Learn and review with your parent the common side effects and potential food and drug interactions to avoid.
- Strongly encourage your parent to get enough fluids, especially water. This is a big problem with the elderly.
- Review antacid use as many drugs react unfavorably with antacids.
- Tell your parent to report any new symptom that could be one of the side effects that you have reviewed together.
- Contact your parent’s pharmacist with questions or concerns about side effects and drug interactions
- Contact your parent’s physician if a drug seems to be causing an adverse effect, or you question if it is still warranted.
I learned a lot from reading this article, and I hope it has helped you as well. I know first-hand how overwhelming multiple drugs are for an elderly person. The print is small on the labels and information insert. Our parents may be already be overwhelmed, confused and weak with all their health issues. This is yet another layer of complexity for them to deal with. Providing oversight and support for our parents with their medications is incredibly important to their health and quality of life!
An excellent guide to review and print out is, “Top Ten Medical Tips When Caring for Older Adults”, http://www.learnaboutrxsafety.org/pdf/NCPIE_Top10MedTipsOlderAdults.pdf
Source: “The Polypharmacy Problem”, http://blogs.hcpro.com/mdscentral/2010/01/the-polypharmacy-problem/print/
The MUST, Medication Use Safety Training, http://www.mustforseniors.org/facts.jsp
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Great tips. I especially appreciated the antacid warning.
Thanks so much for joining us for the Boomers and Seniors: News You Can Use blog carnival at SandwichINK.
