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<\/p>\nA leading GP has warned that with millions taking the common medications, some people are ending up in hospital due to side effects of being over medicated<\/p>\n
Close up showing a woman’s hand, ready to take medicine with a glass of water, having taken the pills out of the blister pack.<\/p>\n
A doctor has issued a serious health warning<\/a> to anyone taking drugs such as statins, ramipril and metformin .<\/p>\n With millions taking five or more medications,<\/a> NHS GP, Dr Amir Khan revealed that people are ending up in hospital due to being over-medicated with drugs that some have been taking for 30 or more years.<\/p>\n Dr Khan highlighted that millions take five or more medications – and hundreds of thousands take 10 or more and added: “It’s resulting in about a thousand hospital admissions due to side effects of medication.<\/p>\n He explained that patients who have been on drugs for high blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol<\/a> – such as statins, ramipril and metformin – for many years may find their bodies have changed significantly over time.<\/p>\n In Ireland, 6 in 10 people aged 65 and older (around 60% to 64.3%) take five or more regular medications (polypharmacy), and 2 in 10 take 10 or more, according to the Irish Health Review Board.<\/p>\n The Irish Health Review Board revealed: “As people grow older, they are more likely to live with multiple chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. As a result these people are prescribed multiple medications by their doctors. In Ireland, for example, 6 in 10 people aged over 65 years are prescribed five or more medications and 2 in 10 are prescribed 10 or more medications.<\/p>\n “While the purpose of these medications is to improve symptoms and the underlying condition, sometimes these medications can have side-effects that can lead to medication-related injury, for example stomach bleeds, problems with the kidneys and falls.”<\/p>\n However, Dr Khan stressed that people should NOT simply stop taking their prescribed medication: “So we don’t want anyone just to stop their medication. And you can see how this can happen. If someone has high blood pressure, diabetes, or has just had a heart attack, they can be quite easily. Just those three things alone can mean you’re on five or more medications and that’s keeping you healthy and living longer as well. The problem we have is that often people start these medications in their 50s and 60s and are still on them in their 80s as well.<\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n “So the prescription stays the same, but the person has changed over that time. Their kidney function may have changed, their weight may have changed, their liver function. All of these things that drugs rely on to break down and work could have changed resulting in more side effects. And that’s the issue.”<\/p>\n There are occasions where patients visit their doctor because something has occurred and they’re experiencing a problem; however, sometimes this is actually down to side effects from their medication. Dr Khan explained: “So the other thing is older people are more prone to these side effects, they come in and see doctors and they rather than saying this is a side effect of the medication, they treat it as a new illness and get a new tablet for it as well. And they could be under a specialist who gives them another tablet for that.<\/p>\n “Often with medicine, you look at single diseases. You got high blood pressure, let’s treat that. You got another single disease, diabetes, let’s treat that. But we need to look at the people taking these medications as a whole. So the answer here is deprescribing, taking medication off is really important looking at people as a whole rather than individual diseases.<\/p>\n “But I think the key people to do all of this is pharmacists in GP surgeries. We’re getting more and more of them. They are brilliant at looking at which medications need to stay on, which ones can come off. That is the key to deprescribing and managing this issue.”<\/p>\n Want to see more of the stories you love from RSVP<\/a> ? 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