older adults. Think about it: many older people in nursing homes or hospitals are routinely on ten, fifteen, or even twenty different kinds of medications!
This practice is inherently dangerous for several reasons:
- Exacerbated Side Effects: Every drug has a side effect profile. When you mix five or more, the risks don’t just add up—they multiply, leading to complex and often unpredictable adverse reactions.
- Drug-Drug Interactions: The interaction between different drugs can make negative effects worse, leading to unexpected memory loss, confusion, and delirium—symptoms that can easily be misdiagnosed as
