Have you been a victim of having too many unnecessary drugs as part of your daily medication routine This article topic is near and dear to my heart because I have an aunt that was a victim of being prescribed too many drugs that she did not need. Also, I feel it is important to get this message across because polypharmacy is becoming a bigger problem for a lot of people.

Polypharmacy is the word used to describe a situation where:

1. a patient is prescribed too many drugs that are not needed.

2. a patient is taking too many forms of a drug.

3. even if medications are needed, the patient has to take a lot of pills every day - so many that the patient may get confused or overwhelmed.

What happened with my aunt was she ended up taking drugs to treat the side effects of the medications she had already been taking. Because her doctor prescribed the medications, she thought she absolutely had to take them all for the rest of her life. It was hard for her to grasp the fact that eventually some drugs are just not needed anymore. She found it very difficult on her mind and body to remove her prescription drugs from her daily routine - why else would the doctor prescribe them

The only reason she stopped taking most of her meds is because she eventually couldn’t afford them (that’s a whole other issue!) Her medication list had reached a total of 18 different drugs to be taken in one day - that number went down to only 4 medications when all was said and done. WHAT !!! Yup, that’s right….only 4 medications now and she feels so much better!

I repeatedly explained to her that all 18 medications were not needed and that she was reaching a danger zone, but she had an excuse as to why she needed them all. She agrees now that she was taking too many drugs.

There may be some people that do need 18 or more medications for medical reasons, but either way, be sure to go over your medication list with your doctor and pharmacist every so often in order to keep your drug list up-to-date - I see firsthand how patients are affected by being overmedicated.

Remember, drugs may be seen as powerful healers, but they can cause a lot of harm too. I think it’s important for patients to know that more drugs does not always mean better results.