Polypharmacy is a term that refers to when a...

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Polypharmacy is a term that refers to when a patient is taking more medications than necessary. It can lead to increased side effects due to drug interactions and noncompliance - would you want to take 15+ pills a day? It can also be hella expensive and leads to medication errors and sometimes even addiction. It usually effects psych, geriatric and HIV/AIDS patients, since it occurs when a patient is suffering from multiple chronic health issues. It can happen when a patient’s case is not being carefully monitored by their physician/nurses or when a patient uses clinics or goes to multiple physicians that may not have records of their current prescriptions. There are many ways to prevent harmful polypharmacy. The #1 solution (in my opinion) is patient education. As nurses, it is our role to advocate for the patient when we see things like this happening, but it would be way more practical if the patient understood what each pill was for and was able to question prescriptions for themselves. Other solutions include trying combination drugs or using an alternative drug that may have a less frequent dosage.

Keep in mind that not all suspected cases of polypharm are necessarily bad for the patient. The physician may have performed trial-and-error tests and found that a certain combination of multiple drugs was the best thing for the patient. However, the next time you see a patient record with two beta-blockers, a calcium channel blocker and an ace inhibitor - awaken those critical thinking skills and try to figure out why your patient may require multiple meds for the same problem OR what you’re going to do about it.