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Care
Page Some elders may have stopped taking a medication because they think it's not working. Some have difficulty taking medicines correctly. Some elders may wonder if they should take the herbs a Shaman recommends. Sometimes the best professional to address these concerns is a pharmacist who can talk to you about drug and herbal interactions. While some of us don't take medications exactly as prescribed, not taking medicine correctly can get a person into a lot of trouble. Your physician and pharmacist need to know if the person you are caring for is having problems taking medicine as prescribed or if they are following alternative treatments. There are many reasons people may not follow their physician's or pharmacist's advice. For those who take numerous drugs, the daily regimen can be confusing and cumbersome, or perhaps they trust going to a traditional healer more and prefer herbal remedies. Here again a pharmacist might be able to help by reducing the number of pills or number of times they must be taken, or give advice about herbal treatments. Sometimes patients stop taking medicine because they don't see that it does any good. For chronic conditions like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, medication controls -- but does not cure -- the condition. Not taking some medicine can lead to hospitalization and other problems. Newer drugs on the market are not always better than older versions. The period immediately after a new drug comes on the market is when people should be most conservative. That's when side effects or adverse reactions with other drugs are more likely to be discovered that weren't noted during previous testing. If you have a choice, you might advise the person you care for to consider waiting until the drug has a more established track record. With some drugs, the recommended dose when the drug first hits the market is later learned to be a higher dose than necessary. Newer drugs can also be very expensive -- often a dollar or more per pill. Newer medicines are expensive because at first only one company makes the drug and the company tries to pay for all of this drug's research and thousands of drugs being tested. Here are some tips to help your pharmacist be an advocate for the good health of your care receiver: -Make sure you take all of the person’s medications -- prescription and over-the-counter and herbal-- to their pharmacist. He or she may be able to suggest ways to save money, simplify the drug regimen, or possibly find nondrug alternatives that your elder may like better. -Tell the pharmacist if the person you care for is having difficulty taking medicines or herbs as directed. -Tell the pharmacist about any allergies. -Tell the pharmacist what over-the-counter drugs or herbal remedies are being taken. For example, taking aspirin for arthritis could affect blood-thinning prescription drugs taken for a heart condition. Taking an herb may interact with a medicine. -If possible, obtain prescriptions from a single pharmacy. Virtually all pharmacies have computer programs that automatically screen for possible adverse reactions between drugs a patient buys there. -Carry with you a list of all the medications, herbs and doses being taken. -If it's not evident from the physician’s directions, tell the pharmacist what disease or condition is being treated by the drug or herb. Make sure you understand how a drug should be taken and make sure the senior you care for knows this, too. -If a new symptom develops after starting a new drug, call the doctor or pharmacist to report this. -Don't let your care receiver take other people's medicine. -Ask about generic drugs that can save your care receiver money. This
Care Page is modified from an online article of the University
of Washington Health Sciences Center.
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