Years ago a friend who was a prof of Pharmacology at a university visited his aging, and ill mother on the other side of the country. He found her laying in bed, with her face to the wall, and having no interest in anything. She was at home under the care of her husband. My friend reviewed her meds, and found that she was highly over medicated, and also suffering from drug interactions. One specialist prescribed one drug, and another another drug, and never the twain did meet in terms of checking to see if there were any interactions. He had many of her drugs removed and she, though ill, became "herself again.
Personally, I am not surprised at the content of this article. In North America, doctors prescribe drugs much more easily than they do many other places in the world. There is an interesting article by David Kloth in The Guardian, Friday 10 June 2011 titled "America's fatal addiction to prescription drugs". It does not mention the additional problem associated with drugs and aging, but focusses more on opioid pain medications, and their abuse. Nonetheless, the message still applies to concerns with the aging population, and with medication in general. From Reuters health - "U.S. doctors are too quick to reach for their prescription pads, according to a report urging them to think more about side effects and non-drug alternatives." Archives of Internal Medicine had an article in September 2011 about "Principles of conservative prescribing" I hope it reaches practicing physicians.
I have been appalled by a few personal experiences, and recently one with my 100 yr old mother, whose health was compromised by the overprescribing of a med. I tend to chat with my local pharmacist if I have questions. They have more training about drugs than doctors do, I believe.

Kelly, thank you for the input from someone who knows...how very sad...our elderly are just filed away in an overstuffed cabinet...

I would also like to add more for your information on how nursing homes work. When your loved one is admitted they are automatically screened for any and all diagnosis possible. This includes a psychiatric eval where they meet with the patient for about 2 minutes and look over their records. There is a rare patient that gets away without medication recommendation. Almost all are recommended to have at least an antidepressant. Some "need" antianxiety meds(ativan or xanax) and often they will also "need"antipsycotics. When the Dr.comes in and looks at these recommendations, they get signed off on from a stack of papers so high it takes an hour just to sit there and quickly sign every thing that needs to be signed. There you go. Dr's. orders. More diagnosis and more meds and more treatments. Seniors ALWAYS get sicker. Average falls are 2.6 per person, per year. Medicare is so broken. It's disgusting. My mission at this point is to keep seniors away from ALFs and SNFs at any cost possible. Oh I forgot to mention how they staff us so low that nonmed interventions like say taking an elderly person for a needed walk, or taking them to the bathroom or giving them a sandwich are not provided like they should be. In these facilites, the answer is ALWAYS a pill.

Hi jeannegibbs, thanks for the question. The analysis involved 19 different studies, seven of which were conducted in the United States. The rest of the investigations considered by the German researchers were from a variety of different countries, including: Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, Holland, Norway, Ireland, Germany, Taiwan and India.

-Anne-Marie

Yes. I agree. You should also focus strongly on whole foods. Hippocrates was a brilliant man. " Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food".

Find doctors who are patient-oriented, not treatment oriented. Also look for alternative medical practitioners such as naturopathic and homeopathic physicians. More importantly, we have to learn more about the meds doctors are prescribing because doctors are not pharmacists and don't always know the contraindications, the interactions, or the side-effects of these things.

kellyr127, say no to doctors? And do what instead?

I am a nurse for 16 years now and I have been watching this get worse by the year, Dr.'s operate from a litigious mentality and from Med schools that are run by Big Pharm. It's no surprise that Iatrogenic didease is now the biggest killer in the US behind heart disease and cancer. Say no to Doctors..

Sometimes the very people we look to for help (doctors) are the ones who cause problems...I don't know if they're not keeping up with their education or they're just not paying attention...both, I think...but they can do irreparable harm to our loved ones, that's for sure.
One of my in-laws was turned into a zombie because he was over-prescribed meds...once he was taken off of them he became himself again.
One medication I know first hand that you can never, ever let a doctor prescribe for an elderly patient, in particular a patient with dementia, is Ativan...there are countless people who were doing fine until given Ativan...it was a death sentence for 2 of my family members. How do the doctors not know this, but others of us do???
You have to be extra vigilant...ask questions and do your research...best of luck to everyone.

Anne-Marie Botek, can you tell us about the analysis the German researchers did -- what countries were included in their data?

Thanks for the leads!

My mother has been on FIVE drugs that have made her totally demented (for over a dozen years, a bladder control drug of all things) and starkraving mad. Insane. I got her off the first four after realizing her hallucinations were not HER, but actually the drug. Thanks to ads on TV with large yelling NOT FOR ELDERLY DEMENTIA PATIENTS. What the heck was my mother, but that? What were the doctors thinking Rxing her these poisons?

She has just come off a year on an antidepressant Rx'd off label for weight GAIN. That is its bad side effect normally, weight gain. So, whoopee, let's RX it for that purpose. Because my mother's situation had changed to a bedlam-style dementia ward, she had plenty of SITUATIONAL reasons to rebel and act out. However, her behavior became increasingly miserable and hellish, that it was...now very familiar. This could be side effect from a drug, as this behavior was before? Hmm... Yes, every single adverse side effect listed for that drug, my mother was doing...and doing loudly. I put in alarm to her nurse and believe she has been off it for perhaps five days. Last night, I got my mother back again...like an alien had taken over her mind and emotions...no like a demon, it was like she was possessed...and last night it left and my pleasant mother was PRESENT.

There are at least TWO official protocols for reassessing a senior's drugs. Many should/could be stopped altogether, some changed to less harmful substitute, most should be changed from long-lasting to fast acting formula (so it does not build up in body). Those are some of the changes I learned about in a lecture about Beers Criteria. (Dr. Beers created protocol for reassessing drug use in nursing home patients). Thank goodness, it has recently been updated 2012 spring. It's easy to find online, but make sure you get the recent version.

The other protocol is called "STOPP Start." if your doctor and/or nursing home does not know about these, run the other way. Not kidding. Find some doctor who is serious about this. And pay attention to increased dementia, "sleepiness" (that would look like dementia, wouldn't it? how would you like your drivers lic taken away because of sleepiness caused by your statin drug or your bladder control med?)

Once you get researching Beers and STOPP, you will find other resources. I often wonder how many seniors could be sprung from nursing homes if a three week "drug vacation" were scheduled. Oh, boy, I'd sure love to see results of that one.