As the number of dementia cases continues to rise, understanding the healthcare journey of patients becomes critical.
A new study digs deep into the medicine cabinets of dementia patients, shedding light on a common but concerning pattern—many are taking multiple medications for various health conditions in the years leading up to their dementia diagnosis.
A Rising Tide of Medication Use
Published in the journal Aging and Disease, the study examined the medical records of over 33,000 dementia patients in Wales from 1990 to 2015.
Researchers used advanced computer techniques to spot patterns in patients’ medicine use as they neared a dementia diagnosis.
What they found was eye-opening. Two decades before being diagnosed with dementia, only about 5.5% of the patients were taking three or more medications.
But this number skyrocketed to a staggering 82% in the five years leading up to their diagnosis.
What Are These Medications For?
Of those closest to their dementia diagnosis, nearly two-thirds were taking multiple drugs, not just for dementia but also for a mix of other conditions like respiratory or urinary infections, joint and muscle diseases, and heart issues.
An additional 22% were also medicating for conditions like depression and metabolic diseases.
The Challenge of “Polypharmacy”
This pattern of taking multiple medications at the same time is known as “polypharmacy.”
The issue with polypharmacy is that it can make medicines less effective and increase the risk of harmful interactions between different drugs.
It also raises the chances of other health risks, like being readmitted to the hospital soon after discharge.
Professor Shangming Zhou, who led the study, emphasized the importance of understanding these medication patterns for safe treatment.
“Given the rise in dementia cases internationally, the need to understand how patterns of polypharmacy evolve before and after a dementia diagnosis are important for devising a safe treatment program for each patient,” he said.
What’s Next?
With 1.6 million people in the UK expected to have dementia by 2040, this study rings alarm bells. It calls for safer prescription practices, especially as patients approach a dementia diagnosis.
Researchers hope that this newfound understanding can guide doctors in prescribing medicine combinations that minimize risks, including cognitive impairments.
In a nutshell, the study provides healthcare professionals with critical insights to consider while prescribing medications, especially to those nearing a dementia diagnosis.
While this doesn’t solve the complex issue of dementia treatment, it’s a significant step in understanding and improving the healthcare journey for these patients.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about how the Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health, and Vitamin B supplements could help reduce dementia risk.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies that high-fiber diet could help lower the dementia risk, and these antioxidants could help reduce dementia risk.
The study was published in Aging and Disease.
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