More prescriptions, greater confusion
Medications improve the lives of seniors, but errors in taking them can be lethal
By Tanika White Sun reporter
March 9, 2008
Ida Canapp insists she would take her five medications and two vitamin pills every day, whether or not a nurse's aide came to her Parkville home to monitor her.But her niece, Renee Gowland of Monkton, knows this is the dementia talking. "She wouldn't take them. Or she wouldn't know if she was taking the a.m. or the p.m. [doses].
"At 82, Canapp is energetic, hospitable and fiercely independent - with the help of Aricept, a drug that tempers the effects of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. But Canapp, who also has diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, and who takes a daily antidepressant, is like many older people with chronic health problems: She has difficulty keeping up with her many medications.
Medication mismanagement among seniors is a growing problem in the United States. Some experts estimate that half of all seniors mismanage one or more of their medications, and seniors are twice as likely to end up in emergency rooms because of drug safety issues.
"About 23 percent of nursing home admissions is due to mismanagement of medications," said Joan Chang, medical director at Good Samaritan Nursing Center. "What we're seeing is that because people don't have that social support, they don't have the means or ways of getting their medication taken appropriately, so they have to go to some kind of assisted living, where someone is there to help."
Abridged.
SOURCE: baltimoresun
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For carers, especially family members who cares for their elderly parents, it is important to note the implications of this issue. Please go to Source site to view the entire article.
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