Drugs Are Keeping Seniors Healthy, and Hurting Them

A study from Lown Institute researchers estimated that up to 10 million older adults experienced an adverse drug reaction last year, reports Forbes . Lown's Judith Garber and Shannon Brownlee reckoned that 5 million seniors were treated for a negative reaction to a medication and 280,000 were hospitalized, at a cost of $3.8 billion. More than 50 percent of those hospitalized were older adults, while 160,000 people are projected to die from adverse reactions to prescription drugs. Persons at greatest risk include those taking five or more medications, who are nearly twice as likely to seek medical care than those taking one or two drugs. Adverse events are frequently caused by interactions among multiple drugs, and seniors taking many different medications are less likely to take them as prescribed, either because they cannot manage them all or because they ration expensive drugs to save money. Diabetes medications were found to be among the leading causes of negative drug reactions. Recommendations for seniors include asking their doctor about a new drug's side effects before starting on it; checking whether the drug may be the cause of changes in health status after administration begins; having a primary care physician coordinate use of multiple medications; and consulting with a board-certified geriatric pharmacist or a consulting pharmacist.