Polypharmacy in Elderly People: A Simple Review

Abstract

With increasing age, there is chance of developing different chronic conditions which are often accompanied by use of multiple medicines that can lead to polypharmacy which can be defined as use of five or more medicine which include the one that has been prescribed, over the counter (OTC) as well as complementary medicine. Geriatric people particularly those with multiple co-morbid health conditions, may develop polypharmacy with high risk of Adverse Drug Events (ADE) and Drug Interaction (DI). Presence of multiple co-morbidities makes them the highest consumer of pharmaceutical drugs, so a high degree of caution is required while prescribing drug to the elderly population. Concept of Deprescribing and several tools like Medication Appropriateness Index, ARMOR (Assess, Review, Minimize, Optimize, and Reassess), and START/STOPP (Screening tool for older persons potentially inappropriate prescription/ Screening tool to alert doctors to right treatment) etc have emerged as practical guides to solve problems related to polypharmacy and these tools should be considered by the prescriber while prescribing the drug to the elderly population.