Seniors should keep track of medications taken

Dangerous interactions: keep track of ingested medications
With increasing age usually also the physical complaints increase. This in turn means that seniors often take different medications at the same time. This can be dangerous: Polymedication threatens health risks.

Many Germans take several medications at the same time
Painkillers, cholesterol or hypotensives, blood thinners: Around one in four in Germany take several pills a day. This resulted in a survey commissioned by the Federal Association of German Pharmacist Associations (ABDA) last year. In the group of seniors from the age of 70, this is even the case for every second. That can be dangerous. According to ABDA, more people in Germany are dying from the side effects of drugs than from driving. In order to be able to expose possible interactions of the various remedies more quickly, seniors should make a list of all taken drugs.

If patients take several medications at the same time, they should urgently keep track of the medications they are taking and consider possible interactions. (Picture: Andreas Schindl / fotolia.com)

Keep track of medications taken
Health experts have been calling for years to better protect patients from medication errors. Frequent medication errors include interactions between drugs. As older people in particular often depend on several medications, it is particularly important for them to keep track of which medicines they are taking. This is done, for example, by keeping a list that they present to the doctor or pharmacist. In general, one can also have a "prescription drug prescription" issued by his family doctor. In the future, the electronic health card (eGK) could also be important in this context, after years of reaching agreement on the voluntary use of "Medicines Therapy Safety" ("AMTS").

Pharmacists can often help
Another way to keep track is to always buy medicines in the same pharmacy. Some pharmacies offer so-called medication cards, which are registered, which drugs - both prescription and non-prescription - the customer acquires. If the pharmacist has an overview of the prescribed and over-the-counter medicines he may be able to take countermeasures. According to the Apothekerkammer Niedersachsen, the likelihood of drug-drug interactions is 38 percent. (Ad)