Due 11.21.23
2
Annotated Bibliography: Polypharmacy in Patient Care
Halli-Tierney, A., Scarbrough, C., & Carroll, D. G. (2019). Polypharmacy: evaluating risks and deprescribing. American family physician, 100(1), 32-38. https://www.aafp.org/afp/2019/0701/p32.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=transaction
The use of different medications for specific conditions or polypharmacy has different health outcomes for the patient. One of the main ideas in the article is a comprehensive assessment of the condition of the patient and the prognosis. It is also essential to consider the risk factors of polypharmacy and avoid unnecessary prescriptions (Halli-Tierney et al., 2019). Polypharmacy can be inevitable in older or younger people with chronic illnesses like mental disorders.
The source provides the necessary steps to medical practitioners every time a prescription is essential. The main concept is age consideration and dose adjustment to prevent the development or damage to the organs (Halli-Tierney et al., 2019). The source also highlights the need for considering previous medications, over-the-counter trials rather than permanent use, continuous monitoring, review and follow-up to detect client-arising complications.
On reflection of the source, the source is useful for continuous education for healthcare providers and client prescriptions. The source is helpful since it highlights the adverse effects of multiple prescriptions like reduction in quality of life, organ damage, low quality of medical care, increase in medical errors, and high burden to the healthcare system (Halli-Tierney et al., 2019). The other factor that makes the source useful is that it focuses on the individual and the population's wellness. The positive aspect is providing health education on the need to stop and report complications to allow prompt interventions.
Varghese, D., Ishida, C., & Koya, H. H. (2022). Polypharmacy. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532953/
One of the main ideas in the source is that polypharmacy is the use of at least five medications for the same medical condition. It is common in the elderly due to the body's physiological changes, predisposing it to co-morbidities and chronic illnesses (Varghese et al., 2022). Multiple drug use in the elderly has adverse effects, and it is necessary to avoid is as possible. In case of inevitable circumstances, it is essential to ensure the benefits outweigh the risks.
In evaluating the source, polypharmacy leads to adverse drug effects in the body due to pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetic abnormalities in the elderly. Some adverse effects lead to renal failure, hypotension, loss of appetite, delirium, and diarrhoea (Varghese et al., 2022). Assessment of the previous medical history and laboratory workups forms the basis of reviewing polypharmacy. Some of the important laboratory values include albumin, which plays a role in the binding of drugs.
In reflection, the source is educative from the perspective of polypharmacy since it focuses on the complete assessment of patients on polypharmacy or those requiring polypharmacy prescriptions. It also emphasizes the need for multidisciplinary collaboration, which is one of the basics of healthcare. The source is also meaningful since it focuses on the effects of polypharmacy in the elderly, the main polypharmacy patients, due to the high-risk factors for chronic and age-related co-morbidities.