Tag: polypharmacy
Polypharmacy
Polypharmacy is the use of multiple medications by a patient, particularly when too many forms of medication are used by a patient, when more medications are prescribed than are clinically warranted, or when all of an individual’s medications are not clinically necessary. While there is no set number of medications that defines polypharmacy, the term is often used when a person uses five or more medications concurrently. However, polypharmacy can be present for someone on three medications, depending on theRead More …
Medication reviews
In the last 3 years I’ve received many requests for medication reviews. Interestingly most of those requests came from nurses; not pharmacists, not social workers and not other doctors. Underlying the requests were generally some concern that patients were not improving. Not a single request was about medication toxicity, or polypharmacy. Nurses tended to hint at the patient requiring higher doses or more medications. That body of experience led me to investigate the concept of medication reviews. The term meansRead More …