Causes, Effect And Solutions Of Polypharmacy In Nigeria

Polypharmacy

Polypharmacy are times patients are prescribe more than one drug. This can happen when a condition require multiple treatment option or when the patient is suffering from more than one disease condition. Each of the prescribed drug have a particular function in the disease condition. However, others define polypharmacy as a situation whereby a patient takes more than five different drugs at a time to treat one or more condition.
Read Also: Between Injection And Oral Dose
There are advantages as well as disadvantages of polypharmacy. At old age, patient come down with many health condition that may require many drugs to treat it. Each of those drugs have different purposes. A careful selection will ensure they are all compactible with each other and suitable for their course.
When a patient is prescribed more than one drug, there is a high probability the patient may not comply and adhere to the dosing. There is also the problem with drug therapy problem that increases with increase drug added.

Medical Doctor And Polypharmacy

Most medical doctors prescribe very few drugs among first line therapy to treat disease condition. In most cases, they work well but not in all cases. When patients visit a medical doctor again with the same condition, they end up prescribing many drugs to avoid the patient coming back again. Have seen cases whereby a patient is given different class of pain relievers because the patient still complain the pain is still there after initial therapy.
There are situation whereby a patient meet with two different medical doctor with same complain. Already on some drugs believe not to be working, another set may be prescribe by the new medical doctor. These drugs may be of same class or another with same intention to achieve same result. This is common in times of poor medication history taking.

Pharmacist And Polypharmacy

When a patient is prescribed many drugs, the pharmacist can help correct the problem by asking the patient questions. These questions can lead to an informed decision to either contact the medical doctor for clarification or do something else. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Most community pharmacist will go ahead with dispensing it like that. This is to increase sales and boost profit.
There is also another problem. Many patient fill their prescription at more than one community pharmacy. When one is dispense, the patient is given the name of the other to buy elsewhere. This makes it difficult for an observing pharmacist to notice any problem in the prescription.
The major problem with polypharmacy in community or retail pharmacy is deliberately prescribing many drugs to a patient with the sole intention to boost sales. Some condition are not that worse to require a treatment when treating the underlying cause will resolve it. Giving many drugs at same time because you wish to boost sales will only lead to one or more of the problem of polypharmacy.
The worst of it is prescribing a drug with side effect and giving other drugs to treat the side effect. This is not avoidable in some health conditions like antipsychotic medications and Parkinsonism. There are cases it can be avoided.

What We All Can Do

For medical doctor, they should give drugs in a stepwise manner until the condition resolve. This may increase hospital visitation by the patient but it is worth the stress. Also, do well to take medication history from patient and other health care personnel that is handling the patient. This will prevent prescribing same drug multiple times with different names.
Pharmacist should ask questions concerning the drugs a patient is using at all time. This include over the counter drugs, prescription only medicine and herbal medication. They should also use time to educate the patient on how to identify brands and generics of drugs to avoid taking same drug with different brand names. This can cause overdose and can be fatal. Lastly, it is costly and morally wrong to add a drug to others just to treat the sign and symptoms of a condition that is not serious nor impact on the life of the patient when it will resolve on its own after some time.
Read Also: What Glutathione Does To Your Skin
Patients are at the receiving end. They should take their health care in their own hand. Rejecting drugs is not an option. Always ask to know the purpose of each drug and consider if it is necessary yourself. They should inform their medical doctor about their past medication history as well as drugs they are currently on. They should speak with a pharmacist concerning their prescription from the doctor to see if there is any problem. To cap it all, always have one medical doctor and pharmacist to help review your condition and drugs.
Share On Social Media With Family And Friends To Show You Care!