Wednesday, March 4, 2009

newsflash on polypharmacy


Take a look around and you will most likely see polypharmacy being implemented somewhere. Now, anybody knowing something about polypharmacy knows that it can have it's advantages and disadvantages. It would seem after reading a news article from http://www.the-health-gazette.com/ titled Beware of Polypharmacy that the news thinks the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. The author of this article states that polypharmacy is a commom practice among physicians today and that the thought of any prescriber knowing all the interactions is near impossible unless they are among the top ones. Do you think it's not as impossible as the author makes it out to be? Polypharmacy is used for a synergistic effect but the fact is that alot of people take over-the-counter drugs that interfere and there are still unkown factors that can trigger interactions. Therefore as of now the use of polypharmacy is somewhat an ongoing process of trial and documentation. The author of this article believes that the medical realm has decided that interactions among people's medications are sometimes "acceptable losses" necessary for advancement. Is this necessary or can more extensive research be done in the lab? whats your view on polypharmacy dangerous or therapeutic?

3 comments:

  1. It is certainly true that polyphamacy is very important in today’s medicine. However, in its adverse repercussions are very overwhelming. For example, there was a case three years ago. A night nurse could not stand to notice a patient going through sleepless and excruciating pain every night. Well, she could not convince the doctor that the medication was the problem after many attempts. This time the nurse decided to minster only an ordinary pain “ty”. And in short, the patient refuses to take medication from any other nurse apart from this nurse because she was doing well only on her shift. In my opinion research on medication is rather a test on patients and how well they respond to the medication. Personally, Polyphamacy is dangerous, but cannot do away with it.

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  2. the problem of polypharmacy i feel is most dangerous when patients take it upon themselves to "play doctor."

    don't get me wrong, I am not saying that physicians are intolerant to error. I just feel that the majority of the problem lies within the patient population.

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  3. if used right and with total disclosure from the patient polypharmacy can be very therapeutic because of its synergistic effect. Doctors combined with pharmacists and the nurse know their information on meds the problem lies with communication on both sides

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