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Medications Are Dangerous, Not Taking Them Is Worse

Last week I wrote about the commonality of polypharmacy and its greatest causes, this week I will focus on the other side of the coin: the danger of not taking enough medications.

A study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology has found that for elderly patients the risk of death increases by a whopping 39 percent, yes, 39 percent for each individual medication that they did not receive that they should have received. Underusing medications increases the risk of death by 26 percent, or more than a quarter.

A study done in Belgium to find out the prevalence of this issue is has found that 31 percent of people over 80 go to the hospital on account of these problems, of which 30 percent died.

All of this goes to underline the importance of nurses and healthcare providers. They are the ones see to it that the elderly take the medications that they need, do not overuse them or underuse them, and they watch for polypharmacy.

They keep the elderly alive