Dr Morley's offer to have a conversation about polypharmacy is timely, but there is
little in his editorial to rebut.
1
Although aggressive management of higher risk elderly patients can be defended, polypharmacy
is clearly a burden to the entire nursing home system.
2
Medication errors are largely a numbers game, and we should reduce numbers of med
passes when we can.
3
Preventive treatments are often of marginal benefit to elderly patients at low risk,
but withdrawing potentially helpful treatment on the basis of number of medications
is not a logical solution to polypharmacy. Innovative methods to replace medications
with nonpharmacologic interventions or reducing med passes seem much more logical.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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- Polypharmacy in the Nursing HomeJournal of the American Medical Directors AssociationVol. 10Issue 5
