Polypharmacy

Risks & contraindications

Evidence quality

Highlighted claims

• Assisted living residents in a 100-person sample averaged 48 prescribed medications, with one resident having 91, far exceeding any safe or manageable level. — Assisted Living Overprescription Crisis
• No clinical trials exist to evaluate the combined interactions of 48 drugs simultaneously. — Assisted Living Overprescription Crisis
• Administering 91 medications to a single resident while simultaneously caring for other residents is not a manageable clinical workflow and generates administration errors. — Assisted Living Overprescription Crisis
• A healthy person placed on 48 simultaneous medications would experience severe liver toxicity because the liver cannot process that drug volume. — Assisted Living Overprescription Crisis