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 The increase in people using multiple medications - known as
polypharmacy - paralleled an increase in the number of older
Americans at risk for major drug interactions, researchers found.
"That’s a concern from a public health standpoint, because it’s
getting worse," said Dima Qato, the study's lead author from the
University of Illinois at Chicago.
Qato and her colleagues previously reported that polypharmacy is
common among older Americans. More than half were taking
prescription and nonprescription medications between 2005 and 2006.
There have been a lot of changes in U.S. regulations and the
pharmacy market since that time, however. Some of those changes
include new and less expensive generic drugs and the implementation
of Medicare Part D, which is the prescription component of the
government-run health insurance program for the elderly or disabled.
To evaluate the change in polypharmacy over time, the researchers
compared the 2005-2006 results to data collected from 2010-2011.
Participants in the study were between the ages of 62 and 85 and
were living at home. The researchers interviewed 2,351 people in
2005-2006 and 2,206 in 2010-2011.
Overall, about 67 percent were taking five or more medications or
supplements in 2010-2011, up from about 53 percent in 2005-2006.
Use of cholesterol-lowering statins rose from about 34 percent to
about 46 percent, the researchers reported in JAMA Internal
Medicine. The proportion of people taking blood-thinning medications
also increased, from about 33 percent to 43 percent, and use of
omega-3 fish oil pills rose from about 5 percent to about 19
percent.
Along with the increase in polypharmacy, the researchers found the
risk of major drug interactions nearly doubled, going from about 8
percent to about 15 percent.
"I think we have to keep in mind that while it’s important to
improve access to medications, we need to make sure they’re used
safely," said Qato.
On one hand, the new results can be seen as positive, said Dr.
Michael Steinman, a gerontologist at the University of California,
San Francisco.
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"We’re treating more people with medications that could potentially
help them," he said. "But when people have four or five chronic
conditions, medications quickly balloon to a large number."
It's important to ensure clear communication between everyone
involved in a patient's care, including the patient, said Steinman,
who wrote an editorial accompanying the new study.
"You can get rid of problems and excess medications by talking with
your doctors," he said.
A separate study reported in the same issue of the journal found
that nearly 42 percent of adults did not tell their doctors about
the use of complementary or alternative medicine, which includes -
among other things - supplements, herbs, homeopathy, special diets
and acupuncture.
Many patients said they didn't tell their doctors about these
alternative medicines because they weren't asked or because their
doctors didn't need to know that information, write Judy Juo and
Pamela Jo Johnson, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
"If a person is talking with their doctor about the medications
they’re using, they should be talking about all the medications
they’re using," said Steinman.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/25giSwq, http://bit.ly/25giTAs and http://bit.ly/25gj12O
JAMA Internal Medicine, online March 21, 2016.
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