“Taking six medications or more contributes to challenges with adherence, since more complicated medication regimens require more time and attention, and increase the potential for making mistakes and inadvertent misuse.”
Dr. Matthew Growden, an aging research fellow at the UCSF Division of Geriatrics and the San Francisco VA Medical Center, further explains:
Many drugs may be especially harmful to older adults with cognitive impairment, such as benzodiazepines, used to treat anxiety, and oxybutynin used to treat urinary incontinence. These drugs have sedating effects that increase the risk of delirium and can worsen dementia.”
Dr. Kenneth Boockvar, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, makes this point:
“Our aim as geriatricians is to prescribe medications to help older people achieve their health and function goals, especially those with dementia. We need to avoid or stop taking medications that do not further those goals. That’s where deprescribing comes in.”
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