Polypharmacy is when you take several medications each day, often defined as five or more. While you may need these medicines to treat or prevent health issues, multiple drugs can sometimes be harmful. Inappropriate polypharmacy is when you take too many medications and have unsafe side effects.
You may be at risk for inappropriate polypharmacy if you take multiple medications for different chronic conditions. If you don’t have one doctor to regularly review these drugs, you may use more than you need.
Who Does Polypharmacy Affect?
Polypharmacy is common in older adults and younger groups of people with multiple chronic conditions.
You might be more likely to use polypharmacy if you:
- Have multiple medical conditions that are managed by different doctors
- Have chronic mental health conditions
- Live in a long-term care facility
But polypharmacy isn’t just limited to these groups. Anyone who takes five or more medications a day is at risk for the side effects of inappropriate polypharmacy.
What Causes Inappropriate Polypharmacy?
Many things can lead to inappropriate polypharmacy. They include:
Automatic medication refill services. If you only refill your medications and don’t update or check in with your doctor, you may take too many medications. This can lead to unwanted side effects.
Poorly updated medical records. If your doctor doesn’t update your medical records, other members of your medical team may not know about all the drugs you take. It’s also important to tell your doctor about any medication changes so that they can add them to your records.
Lack of communication. While it’s possible to take multiple medications from different doctors, it’s important that these experts have a way to notify and update each other. If they don’t communicate, you may take too many medicines and risk harmful side effects.
Does Polypharmacy Have Any Risks?
Older women are at the greatest risk for drug-related harm from inappropriate polypharmacy. This is partly because they make up the biggest share of older age groups. But it’s also because they tend to take more drugs starting at a younger age than men do. But anyone who takes multiple medications is more likely to have issues.
This happens because some medications mix poorly with other medicines in your body. Experts call this a drug interaction. There are several issues that can happen if you take too many medications. Drug interactions can lead to:
- Memory issues
- Falls and broken bones
- Kidney failure
- Liver failure
- Hospitalization
- A higher risk of death
Polypharmacy can also cause other issues:
- It may be hard to remember to take multiple medications at the right time.
- You’ll have to visit your doctor and pharmacist repeatedly.
- The cost of multiple medications may become high.
How Can Doctors Discover and Undo Inappropriate Polypharmacy?
It’s important that doctors look for symptoms of inappropriate polypharmacy. These might include:
- Confusion
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Loss of appetite
- Falls
- Tremors
- Weakness
- Dizziness
- Not being as alert
- Tiredness
If your doctor finds that you’re affected by inappropriate polypharmacy, they may have you go through a process called “deprescribing.” This is when you lower the amount or stop some medicines that aren’t beneficial to you anymore.
The process of deprescribing involves multiple steps. To do this safely, your doctor will work with you, your family, any caretakers, and other doctors or pharmacists.
As a team, you’ll go over all your medications and why you take them. Then you’ll look at any possible issues each drug could cause. You and your team will chat about whether the medications you take are still useful.
After this, you and your doctors will decide if you can stop any of the drugs you take. You’ll also talk about which ones you’ll stop first. Your doctor will create a management plan to do this.
You’ll slowly stop the chosen medicines, one at a time. To make sure this plan is safe and effective, you’ll meet regularly with your doctor.
How Can You Avoid Side Effects With Polypharmacy?
The good news is you can make changes to avoid harm from inappropriate polypharmacy. To stay on top of your health, it’s important to:
Take note of your medications. Make a list of the medications you take. Write down the name, strength, brand, dose, what you use the medicine for, and when and how you take it. You might also want to include when you began to take it and which doctor prescribed it to you.
You can do this by hand or through an online health record through an app or website. This way you can share your medical data with all your doctors.
Ask for a medication review. You can have your doctor or pharmacist look at your medications. They’ll be able to tell you if you need to make any changes.
This expert will work with you and your doctor to create a plan to manage your medication routine. This will help you avoid too many medications or possible drug interactions.
Learn about your medications. You can ask your pharmacist for an information sheet about your medications. They can also explain any questions you have about your drugs. This information can be helpful in the future, especially when you start a new medication.
Through this, you can find out about interactions or other side effects.
Talk to your doctor. At each appointment, it may be a good idea to check in on your medication regimen. Ask your doctor if you should still take all of the medications that are a part of your plan. You can also ask how each drug helps you stay healthy.
If you have any side effects, ask your doctor if any of your drugs could be the reason for them. After your doctor has reviewed your medication regimen, ask them to make sure no medications interact with each other.