155 Polypharmacy Burden: How to Optimise, a Practical Approach
Abstract Polypharmacy refers to the numerical value of medications used by a patient and is typically described as the concurrent use of five or more medications per day, but the definition is variable and there is no global consensus. Polypharmacy is unfortunate consequence of rapid advancement of medicine. Polypharmacy could be appropriate or problematic. Problematic polypharmacy can arise if the medicines are used without good evidence and in this situation risk of harm outweighs benefit. While there might be clinical indication for the medications to treat co-morbidities of a given patient, polypharmacy in older persons are associated with negative outcomes such as falls, adverse drug events and increased healthcare utilisation. This is mainly due to the physiological changes in this population which increases their risk of adverse drug events as well as the problems associated with remembering, managing and administering the medications appropriately. Hence, researchers and clinicians around the world have been actively looking at ways to reduce polypharmacy and optimise drug therapy in older persons to improve clinical, economic and social outcomes. To date, medication review by pharmacists in various settings has been the most researched and documented evidence in tackling this issue. Medication review refers to the structured evaluation of a patient’s medication with the aim to reach agreement with the patient about drug therapy, optimising the impact of medication, and minimising the number of drug-related problems. This session aims to summarise the available evidence on various types and outcomes of medication review with the aim to optimise polypharmacy among older persons around the world and provide a practical recommendation in tackling the phenomena.