Modern life has its advantages and disadvantages both. While healthcare and medical science has advanced a lot but then the medicines and multiple tests associated with them can become overbearing.
At times physicians prescribe multiple medicines even for a simple allergy or a common cold. Though I am not a medical professional, yet it seems that the number of medicines which we have to take on a daily basis has somewhat increased over the past two decades.
Typically ageing is directly proportional to the amount of medicines one starts taking. While on one hand, lifestyle diseases and the medicines associated with them are impacting even the younger generation but in general the menu of medicines keeps increasing as we grow older.
In the context of the Food & Beverage industry, medications for Senior Citizens is like a 13 course French meal rather than a combo fast food menu. Every morning and evening the dishes keep changing and whether we like it or not we have to keep eating the same buffet.
The larger point of debate is, where does polypharmacy come into the picture? To be honest as a layman I did not understand this term till the time the definition was read:
"Polypharmacy refers to the concurrent use of multiple medications by a single patient, usually defined as taking five or more daily. It is common in older adults".
The other day when my young man of 88 years did not get up till 10am in the morning, it became a concern, the moment he got up, his response was, I think I took one particular medicine 2 times.
Medication error including duplication of medicines is a common concern amongst older people, the issue is, how do we address this part when it comes to self-medication or even by Caregivers.
In a country like India, self-diagnosis and self-medication is a common practice, and if there are any doubts then the local pharmacy employee is more than happy to give his medical insights.
As the population of older people is increasing, the use of medicines is naturally going to go up. And to be honest, some people are more than happy to prescribe multiple medicines especially for senior citizens probably to ensure the sales targets or to cover the symptoms from all sides.
Polypharmacy may sound as a fancy word but its impact on senior citizens can be critical. Medication administration requires supervision and monitoring both at the home level and at the institutional level.
Do visit our website: elderlycareindia.org for free resources and information.
Pankaj Mehrotra
