Medications are prescribed to enhance sufferers’ well being, not worsen it; nonetheless, when drugs have harmful interactions or are taken incorrectly, sufferers can expertise hazardous, even deadly results. 

Polypharmacy, the follow of taking a number of drugs concurrently for the administration of a number of well being circumstances, is turning into a rising concern for physicians, as a consequence of attainable drug-drug interactions (DDIs) that may trigger adversarial reactions for sufferers. And even with out drug interactions, polypharmacy could cause nausea, lightheadedness, dry mouth, and different troublesome signs.

This is very true for seniors who generally should handle a number of drugs a day. In America, 20% of seniors take 10 medications daily, posing severe danger to their well being if taken incorrectly or as a consequence of undetected drug interactions. Over the final decade, seniors sought out medical remedy for adversarial drug occasions greater than 35 million instances. Studies present that almost 80% of medicine errors are preventable. Additionally, if these adversarial drug occasions proceed to happen on the present fee, it is going to value greater than $420 million in financial losses.  

This doesn’t simply apply to prescription drugs – over-the-counter drugs, nutritional vitamins, and dietary supplements can all contribute to DDIs. For instance, sure coronary heart drugs which might be generally prescribed to seniors are extremely delicate and might work together with sure meals and dietary supplements, like fibre or natural dietary supplements, which might trigger one or the opposite drug to grow to be much less efficient or, in lots of instances, to amplify the impact of a drug – in the end inflicting severe unintended effects.

Additional components that enhance the dangers of polypharmacy

Many senior sufferers have little to no understanding of how sure drugs can combine dangerously with these additional dietary supplements and nutritional vitamins due to numerous communication breakdowns within the healthcare journey. For instance, even when requested, many sufferers fail to inform their healthcare professionals about different drugs or dietary supplements they’re taking. 

Seniors additionally usually see a number of specialists and, though digital medical data assist remove the difficulty of prescription interactions, incomplete data or a lack of understanding about earlier remedy plans, together with the usage of dietary supplements, may lead to prescribing errors. These are a kind of medicine error that happen when a prescriber chooses the improper medicine, the improper dose or frequency of dose, the improper administration, or the improper length of remedy for a affected person, which may very well be probably very harmful for sufferers already taking a number of drugs. 

In different instances, sufferers decide to rely on the web for medicine steering about nutritional vitamins and dietary supplements. Perhaps they learn an article or took recommendation from a good friend on a specific complement, bought it, and commenced taking it with none data of the way it would possibly react with their present prescriptions. Even if the affected person does know the dangers at hand, they might not have entry to assets to assist them or their caregiver handle and monitor potential adversarial results.

To keep away from dangerous, even deadly errors, seniors want a dependable supply of data the place they will assess potential unintended effects and reactions from their medicine mixtures. As physicians and caregivers, we should talk the dangers when attainable and supply senior sufferers with choices to trace, handle, and study their drugs. 

How expertise boosts assist for senior sufferers

While the widespread technique of trusting a pillbox to trace dosages may match for some, different sufferers want an additional stage of assist that solely expertise may present, particularly in the event that they don’t have entry to common in-person caregiver assist. Interestingly, the pandemic flipped the script on the widespread perception that seniors are usually not open to new applied sciences. Research from AARP reveals that 44% of older adults view expertise extra positively than they did earlier than COVID-19, and 27% of individuals over the age of fifty now use a wearable machine. And Pew Research discovered that 75% of Americans 65 and older are on-line – a proportion that’s rising annually.

There are a number of digital healthcare options which might be driving innovation in medicine administration and engagement to higher assist senior sufferers. These embody computerized prescription dispensers, telemedicine steering for sufferers who want common digital consultations to handle their prescriptions, even smartphone apps to assist sufferers log their medicine doses. Tools of this nature may very well be useful for sufferers who want additional assist in monitoring their drugs, in order that they don’t by chance double or miss a dose, whereas retaining them engaged with their supplier to warn them in regards to the dangers and DDIs related to their medicine and remind them about refills. 

Like every part else in general well being and wellness, data is energy when taking drugs. It is important for seniors to grasp the dangers of polypharmacy, really feel empowered of their medicine administration, and have entry to the assets they should safely navigate their medicine journey – and expertise is a vital resolution that’s more and more in attain of even our oldest sufferers.