A caregiver’s story of medication overload

By Judith Garber | November 14, 2019

In a recent feature article in Healthy Aging magazine, patient advocate Johanna Trimble describes what happened when her mother-in-law, Fervid, was transferred from her residential facility to a nearby health care center to treat her flu symptoms. Johanna and her family began to notice some unusual and alarming symptoms–Fervid was confused and agitated, and sometimes could not even recognize her children.

A psychiatrist at the health care center diagnosed vascular dementia, but Johanna and her family suspected that medication overload was to blame. Fervid had been placed on several new medications, including two antidepressants, while in the health care center. And now, the psychiatrist was suggesting adding another drug to her regimen. Johanna and her family were flabbergasted that the staff had added so many new medications without telling her family first.

Johanna and her family recognized that too many medications in older people can cause serious harm, both physically and cognitively. According to a Lown Insitute report, every day 750 adults age 65 and over in the U.S. are hospitalized because of a serious side effect caused by one or more medications. These adverse drug events can range from fatigue and dizziness to cognitive decline and falls. The more medications one takes, the greater the risk of harm.

How did Johanna and her family restore Fervid back to health? What advice would Johanna give family caregivers trying to protect their loved ones from medication overload? To find out, read her article in Healthy Aging!

Family Caregivers: Protect Your Loved Ones from Medication Overload

To eliminate medication overload, serious cultural, educational, and policy changes are needed. This action plan offers recommendations for policymakers, health care institutions, clinicians, and patients across five key categories to reduce harm from multiple medication use. Suggested Citation: Eliminating medication overload: A national action plan. Working Group on Medication Overload. Brookline, MA: The Lown Institute, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46241/LI.YLBW4885

Pharmaceutical marketing is a significant factor in the growing public health crisis of medication overload, which puts millions of older adults at risk of preventable harm and premature death. This issue brief provides recommendations to reduce pharmaceutical industry influence by limiting pharma sales rep visits to clinicians and direct-to-consumer advertising.

This issue brief provides recommendations for clinical practice guidelines and electronic health records that would give clinicians the information they need to appropriately prescribe and deprescribe.