United States: A new study warns that people with Alzheimer’s disease who take five or more medications every day may be at greater risk of problems. These patients frequently experience many symptoms, falls, and hospital visits, and they may have a higher chance of serious health issues. This means it’s important for caregivers to pay close attention to the medications these patients are taking.
“They also stated higher levels of functional impairment; higher levels of dependence in basic self-care activities such as feeding, personal grooming and mobility; and more reliance on cane/walker,” says lead author of the study, Martha Coates, post-doctoral research fellow, Drexel University College of Nursing, Philadelphia, US.
The concern for individuals is what researchers refer to as polypharmacy — the consumption of five or more drugs in a single day as people age.
As reported by the HealthDay, the cut-off of point of five or more medications daily has been used in other studies relating to adverse health and therefore as the number of medications increases so actually does the risk of adverse drug events and harm,” said Coates in a Drexel news release.
I refer to any use of five or more medications, background research indicates that older people have elevated polypharmacy prevalence of more than 30 percent.
However, there are no studies directly associated with how polypharmacy influences user with Alzheimer’s or related dementias, the researchers pointed out.
In such a case, research used data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study from Johns Hopkins University and in particular Medicare beneficiaries.
To investigate changes in symptoms, diseases, and physical function they studied a cross-sectional sample over 2000 people between 2016 to 2019.
“We also established that the increment in unpleasant symptoms, increased odds of falling, being hospitalized and mortality among those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and polypharmacy was higher than those without Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and polypharmacy,” Coates said.
The new study was published recently in the Biological Research for Nurses journal.
For health care providers who practice in areas treating elderly patients there are some instruments which might assist in controlling a large dose schedule but none of them has been developed to meet the needs of patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia, Coated said.
More clinical research is still called for to identify ways on how to handle or address polypharmacy in elderly patient with Alzheimer’s, according to Coates.
The older adult population is growing in the United States and with an establishment of 80 million individuals over the age of 65 by 2040 said Coates and this means that the number of olde adults diagnosed with the Alzheimer’s disease and related to the dementias which will also increase the currently there is no cure and also avoiding adverse outcomes related to polypharmacy which can improve the quality of life and prevent excess disability for the older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.’