6 · SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017 MONITORING YOUR MEDICATIONS Ensuring that a loved one is taking his or her medication correctly can be challenging, and the potential for mistakes can be cause for concern, especially when dealing with older adults. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, 64.8 percent of adults 65 and older take three or more prescription medications and 39.1 percent take five or more. That doesn’t include over-the-counter medications and supplements. It can become complicated for anyone, but add cognitive impairment to the mix and the potential increases for a loved one to under-medicate, overmedicate or skip medication completely. “When we have patients where we’re think-ing there may be mild cognitive impairment or very early dementia, one of the first things we ask about is medication,” said Dr. Eric Ro-driguez, associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “Medication adherence is one of the first things to go with a progressive cognitive disorder, when you move from a state where the patient is telling you they’re more forget-ful to the next state where they’re saying their memory’s not that bad when it’s actually worse than it was before.” There are things caregivers can do to help a loved one stay on track, however, that go beyond keeping a pillbox. To begin with, it helps to have a list of med-ications that’s up-to-date and easy to read. For instance, Rodriguez said, he saw a patient who had moved into a separate apart-ment in his son’s home, but the family was trying to allow him independence and had not been watching closely over his medication adherence. “The patient brought in his medication lists and pillboxes and you could almost tell there was no way he was taking his pills as pre-scribed,” Rodriguez said. “There were four pillboxes to be used daily, Nearly two-thirds of Americans age 65 or older take three or more prescription medications per day. two for prescriptions and two for supple-ments, and he had six different versions of his prescribed medication list, all with items scratched out and scribbles and none were probably up-to-date or accurate. “The family missed this in their effort to not be hovering over dad, but it’s one of those things it helps to be proactive with and realize that one of the first capabilities to go is taking meds properly.” Similarly, it helps to speak with a loved one’s physician and make sure that all the medications prescribed are still necessary or still a benefit. Other questions to ask include whether the list could be simplified by taking a pill once a day instead of twice, or whether two medica-tions might be combined into one pill. Another change could be taking a certain pill in the morning rather than bedtime, GETTY IMAGES Keeping track of prescriptions can pose a challenge for the elderly
cg_vn_22517
To see the actual publication please follow the link above