An Example of Being Overmedicated

We all know that people have a lot of prescriptions.  Here is an interesting story about one individual and the process that her family went through to do essentially Medication Therapy Management (MTM) and find out the right mix of drugs.  I don’t know the person recommended in the story, but I certainly recommend making sure your physician and especially your pharmacist know all your drugs and talk with you to see about potentially having too many prescriptions (especially once you are above 10 different medications).

Each added prescription increases the likelihood not only of a problematic interaction but also of misuse. Studies show that half of older people sometimes fail to follow their Rx instructions. It’s no wonder. Consider my mom’s regimen: She took 32 pills a day, at five different times—some once a day, some twice, some three times, and some as needed. One pill had to be split in half for the morning dose but not for the evening dose. Some were taken with food, others on an empty stomach. She also used three different asthma inhalers plus a nebulizer, all on different schedules. I’m half her age, and I couldn’t keep that straight.