Low-value Care

How to avoid harm from prescription drug overload

Abstract: Medications can treat symptoms, prevent disease, and even extend our lives. But can taking too many drugs be harmful? A new report from the Lown Institute finds that millions of older Americans are at risk of harm from the side effects of multiple prescription drugs, an epidemic experts are calling “Medication Overload.”

Date Published: April 16, 2019

Publication: Just Care

View This Resource

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.