{"id":1103,"date":"2016-10-31T12:24:15","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T16:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/?p=1103"},"modified":"2016-10-28T17:28:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T21:28:51","slug":"polypharmacy-and-deprescribing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/polypharmacy-and-deprescribing\/","title":{"rendered":"Polypharmacy and Deprescribing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/HiA.org-wtag-4c.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-898 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/HiA.org-wtag-4c-300x66.jpg\" alt=\"Web\" width=\"300\" height=\"66\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/HiA.org-wtag-4c-300x66.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/HiA.org-wtag-4c-1024x226.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/HiA.org-wtag-4c-500x110.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/HiA.org-wtag-4c.jpg 1099w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Does the number of medications you&#8217;re taking sometimes seem too high? Maybe it\u2019s time for you and your healthcare provider to give your medication list a check-up by taking a closer look at the prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) treatments you take.<\/p>\n<p>As you grow older, you\u2019re more likely to develop health conditions that require taking multiple medications\u2014some of which you may take for a long time. Many older people also take OTC medications, vitamins, or supplements as part of their routine care. As a result, older adults have a higher risk of overmedication, also known as \u201cpolypharmacy\u201d\u2014the medical term for taking four or more medications at the same time. Polypharmacy can increase your chances of unwanted reactions (also called \u201cadverse drug reactions\u201d) due to medications taken on their own or together.<\/p>\n<p>To address this increasingly common problem, healthcare providers are focusing on how to reduce the number of medicines older adults are using through a practice called \u201cdeprescribing.\u201d Dr. Michael Steinman, a member of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco, recently appeared on WPUR\u2014Boston\u2019s NPR News Station\u2014to discuss deprescribing with Dr. Barb Farrell, a pharmacist from Bruy\u00e8re Geriatric Day Hospital in Ottawa, and Laura Landro, assistant managing editor at the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wbur.org\/onpoint\/2016\/10\/18\/deprescribing-medicine-pharmacy\">Hear what they had to say<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Want access to more tips and tools to help you manage <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/aging-and-health-a-to-z\/topic:managing-multiple-health-problems\/\">multiple chronic conditions<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/medications-older-adults\/\">multiple medications<\/a>? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/aging-and-health-a-to-z\/\">We\u2019ve got you covered.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does the number of medications you&#8217;re taking sometimes seem too high? Maybe it\u2019s time for you and your healthcare provider to give your medication list a check-up by taking a closer look at the prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) treatments you &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/polypharmacy-and-deprescribing\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,5,1,9],"tags":[58,38,59,60,57],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1103"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1107,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions\/1107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthinaging.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}