Polypharmacy Case Study
Here is an example of what it should look like
Case Study
Mrs. A is a 71-year-old widow with CHF and osteoarthritis who has recently been
exhibiting quite unusual behavior. Her daughter is concerned about her mother’s ability
to remain independent and wishes to pursue nursing home admission arrangements.
She fears the development of a dementing illness. Over the last two to three months
Mrs. A has become confused, easily fatigued and very irritable. She has developed
disturbing obsessive/compulsive behavior constantly complaining that her lace curtains
were dirty and required frequent washing. Detailed questioning revealed that she
thought they were yellow-green and possibly moldy. Her prescribed medications are:
Furosemide 40 mg daily in the morning
Digoxin 250 micrograms daily
Paracetamol 500 mg, 1-2 tablets 4-hourly PRN
Piroxicam 20 mg at night
Mylanta suspension, 20 ml PRN
Coloxyl 120 mg, 1-2 tablets at night
Problematic of the patient’s pharmacological management.
The problematic nature of this patient’s pharmacological s management is inappropriate
polypharmacy. In the elderly population, it is common the existence of multiple chronic health
conditions. Therefore, due to multimorbidity, the use of one or more medicines may be used to
treat each condition, and as a result, the patient will be on multiple drugs at the same time.
According to Masnoon et al. (2017), polypharmacy’s most common reported definition is “five or
more medications daily.”Research suggests that polypharmacy often is associated with adverse
outcomes, including “mortality, falls, adverse drug reactions increased length of stay in hospital
and readmission to the hospital soon after discharge” (Masnoon et al., 2017). In the described
case, due to the inappropriate polypharmacy, the patient’s risk and safety are becoming
concerned for the family members. The patient is taking multiple medications that can
potentially interact with one another, overlap and potenciate their effect and put patient health at
risk.
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