My extensive work in geriatrics has led to a great understanding of the prescribing cascade. The prescribing cascade is simply defined as using medications to treat the side effects of other medications. There are literally hundreds to thousands of these examples....
Confusion is one of those vague symptoms in the elderly that can be due to nearly anything. Polypharmacy is hard to ignore and here I breakdown a medication list of a 79 year old female with increasing confusion: Enalapril 5 mg daily Aspirin 325 mg daily Simvastatin...
88 year old male has a history of osteoarthritis. He has tried self treatment with acetaminophen 325 mg twice daily with no benefit. Upon a recent evaluation with his primary provider, he was prescribed Naproxen 500 mg two times daily. His current medication list...
A patient was on 30+ medications. I always kind of wonder what it would be like to be on that many medications, but hope I never find out. I simply think of the sheer volume of that many pills and depending upon the size each pill, it is probably close to the size...
59 year old female who is rehabbing from a knee replacement. On day 3 following the procedure, the patient is still experiencing a significant amount of pain. She has been discharged from the hospital and is taking Percocet 2 tablets four times daily for pain...
61 year old male with a history of diabetes, neuropathy, BPH presents complaining of not being able to sleep well at night. He states that he has been diagnosed with BPH and hasn’t wanted to be treated because it hasn’t been that bad. His current meds...
