Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety (Mar 2022)
An Atypical Case of Extreme Polypharmacy
Abstract
Michael A Veronin Social and Administrative Sciences, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health Outcomes, The University of Texas at Tyler, Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy, Tyler, TX, 75799, USACorrespondence: Michael A Veronin, Social and Administrative Sciences, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health Outcomes, The University of Texas at Tyler, Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy, 3900 University Blvd., Tyler, TX, 75799, USA, Tel +1 903 566 6148, Fax +1 903 565 5598, Email [email protected]: A commonly reported definition of polypharmacy is the numerical definition of 5 or more medications daily, and definitions have ranged from 2 or more to 11 or more medications. In this case report, an extreme case of polypharmacy is presented, highlighted by the inordinate number of drugs used over time throughout the patient’s care. A 48-year-old African American female with multiple comorbidities experienced a serious adverse drug event (ADE) prompting reporting to MedWatch, the US Food and Drug Administration’s adverse drug event reporting system. The patient’s concomitant medications included 146 drug entities, across 82 therapeutic drug categories. It is apparent that the greatest influence on the occurrence of polypharmacy was the presence of multiple comorbidities, and treatment centered around addressing each morbidity with drug therapy. This case illustrates the insidious nature of polypharmacy and raises questions as to the appropriate progression and limits on the use of multiple medications.Keywords: polypharmacy, adverse drug event, comorbidity, multiple medications, food and drug administration, MedWatch
