Prescription Medications And The Elderly

KYW's Medical Reports Sponsored By Independence Blue Cross

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- As doctors, we try to do the best for our elderly patients and sometimes we need to prescribe many medications, especially heart medications to fight problems like high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke. But this may not always be a good thing, according to experts from the Denver Health Medical Center who believe that as physicians, we need to be more thoughtful about using as few drugs as possible.

Here is an example: elderly patients with heart failure are faced with complex and expensive medication regiments. For people with this condition, the average number of chronic medications prescribed ranges from 6.8 to 7.5, and it usually takes eleven separate doses to take them.

Remember, many elderly are on a fixed income and it is not unusual for older people to get confused and take the wrong drugs.

The final concern is that every medication has side effects —often dangerous and unwanted.