Are seniors being over-prescribed?
It has become so common, so problematical, it has a name, polypharmacy, which means taking more than one prescription drug at the same time. Some seniors insist it is reaching epidemic proportions.
While medications are intended to improve lives and relieve symptoms, in far too many cases they may be causing even more problems.
“I take high blood pressure pill, heart pill, I take high blood pressure, heart pill, sometimes my memory isn’t as good as it used to be,” said 75-year-old Bobbie Martin of Indio.
Martin, undergoing dialysis at JFK Memorial Hospital is not unlike many seniors. Remembering exactly how many prescription medications she takes on a daily basis, and what they are intended to cure, or at least relieve, is difficult at best.
“I take about 5 pills every day, 5 everyday, yea, 5 every day, every day,” said Martin.
And Martin mirrors many Americans over 60. Two out of three seniors have two or more chronic conditions. For them, taking as many as a dozen medications on a regular basis is not at all uncommon and the doctors who prescribe them, like Dr. Andrew Kassinove of JFK, feel they know why….
“I think people want solutions for everything, and rather than doing the old fashioned hard work of taking care of yourself, diet, exercise resting, we prescribe a pill for every ailment. is that the fault of the medical profession or the people being treated? I think it’s a combination.”
Often for the elderly there is not much physicians can do to reduce discomfort and pain except to offer prescription drugs and offer they do.
Seniors are taking a record number of prescription drugs everything from transdermal patches laced with Fentanyl, Morphine, Hydrocodone, Xanax just to name a few.
Find a senior, and almost inevitably, he or she will admit they have some issues with their prescriptions.
“I have taken drugs in the past, that no one told me about the side effects and I did get the side effect, like from your statins, they make your body ache,” Ken McCow of Palm Desert.
“I have been told by my pharmacist that you are taking too much of one prescription, and I go to the doctor and he says yeah we will but back on that a little bit,” said Linda Cappella of Indian Wells.
Worst case scenario, prescription drugs can be dangerous. More and more seniors are going to the E.R., more and more seniors are becoming addicted to their prescriptions, more and more seniors are even overdosing.
Older adults may fail to take drugs in the proper way and sometimes certain drugs may interact with each other, causing additional symptoms and health problems.
Dr. Saeed Eskandari is an internal medicine specialist at JFK Memorial Hospital. He says patients need to be their own advocate.
“As a physician what I do, I tend to look through the history and make sure that if a patient shouldn’t be on a medication I document why,” said Dr. Saeed Eskandari of JFK Memorial Hospital. “Ask questions, have your questions ready and when you go see your doctor question every time they give you new medication as well as pharmacy make sure they review everything with you.”
There is also some level of suspicion for some seniors, they see the huge sum of money pharmaceutical companies spend on T.V. advertising, trying to lure seniors into taking pills to cure everything from a common backache to erectile dysfunction. Some wonder if the medical world and big pharma have joined in an unholy alliance, hoping to profit by over-prescribing medications.
But Dr. Kassinove says that is simply not the case…
“We have absolutely no financial interest in the pharmaceutical industry; they don’t pay us, they don’t reimburse us for prescriptions, they don’t buy us lunch.”
But one thing that is not in dispute, is that the more drugs are prescribed, the higher the tolerance level for the drugs, and that means more prescription drugs must be prescribed to achieve the same result. That, doctors say, can lead to even more serious health problems, including respiratory failure, dementia, and increased cognitive issues… But the medical world makes clear, prescriptions drugs, though not perfect, are here to stay, and are helping our aging population.
“Certainly physicians want to help and if they have a pill that they think will help the patient and patient has an expectation that pill can solve their problems then they meet, and it’s a happy marriage,” said Dr. Kassinove.
For Bobbie Martin, like many seniors, it is a daily battle. This septuagenarian, who loves to talk about her career as a baker, maintains an amazingly cheery attitude, despite undergoing dialysis and continuing with a regimen of prescriptions drugs that she says she is working every day to better understand.
