Abstract

POLYPHARMACY: AN OVERVIEW

Sameen*, Ankita Kumar and Rahul Saini

ABSTRACT

Polypharmacy is associated with the combination of too many medicines in one prescription for the patient which leads to high risk of drug-drug interactions and adverse drug reactions. The main goal of this review study is to provide an overview using observational studies. It aims to inspect the epidemiology of polypharmacy and to review various types of studies which have been published in the past two decades targeted to manage polypharmacy. Cohort studies, systemic reviews, clinical trials and meta-analysis were used to examine and analyze several consequences of polypharmacy and its management. Physicians and clinical pharmacists plays a key role in management of polypharmacy through a range of interventions such as by reducing the number of medications taken, doses to be taken, preventing adverse drug reactions (ADRs), improving patient‘s quality of life, increasing patient adherence with the medication and decreasing competence and drugs cost. Nowadays, various types of tools and technologies are available in managing polypharmacy such as the use of clinical decision support system, artificial intelligence,use of smart phone applications, medical reconciliation and by optimizing the use of medicines.

Keywords: Polypharmacy, Multi-morbidity, De-prescribing, Medicine Reconciliation, Smart phone applications.