Drugs Making Elderly People Sick: Study

[Lite Beer]

Drugs making elderly people sick: study

By The Nation on Sunday

One in five elderly people taken to hospital are suffering side effects caused by taking two or more drugs at the same time, a recent study revealed.

Anti-diabetes drugs, high blood pressure drugs and carbon-detox drugs are the medicines most commonly used to treat elderly patients, according to a study by the Pharmacy Council.

The study collected data and interviewed 331 elderly patients at a hospital's medicine department over the past six months.

A study found that one in five of them had undergone treatment at hospital because of side effects from taking drugs.

About 40 per cent had taken inappropriate drugs. Around 60 per cent had experienced adverse drug effects from, for example, taking different drugs at the same time, council president Assoc Professor Thida Ningsanont said.

"Elderly patients had visited several hospitals to undergo treatment and receive drugs. Doctors who provided care should know what kind of drugs they had taken," she said.

"Some of them had bought drugs at drugstores by themselves, especially herbal medicines and supplements," she added.

Jatuporn Thong-im, a pharmacist at the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's Health Unit 51, said elderly people in the community had taken a lot of drugs over the past 10 years. "Some of them told me they had taken drugs like candy. Some like to take antihistamines for a long time as the side effects from taking the drugs help them sleep well," he said, adding that doing so could reduce the effectiveness of high blood pressure drugs.

In a bid to help elderly patients avoid side effects from taking excessive amounts of drugs, the council will distribute about 50,000 diaries, which will help them take notes about the drugs they are prescribed. The diaries can be obtained at hospitals and drug stores.

-- The Nation 2011-06-19

[tjansen]

Raw food.

[moe666]

This is a problem in the States as well. A patient visiting more than one Dr. and each proscribing different drugs for different problems and they donot talk to each other.

Edited June 19, 2011 by moe666

[rreddin]

This is a problem in the States as well. A patient visiting more than one Dr. and each proscribing different drugs for different problems and they donot talk to each other.

Hypertension and diabetes often go hand in hand. That should make joined up treatment easier. It is not beyond the whit of a pharmacist or doctor to enquire about what medications, including herbal remedies, that the patient is taking and in what dosage. Yet, whenever I have bought hypertension medicines from a pharmacy in this country, I have never been asked whether it had been prescribed by my doctor or about the dosage or whether I was taking any other medication. Nor have I been advised by a pharmacist whether the medication is appropriate for me to take. In short, they sold it as if it was a candy bar.

Every time I visit a doctor or a clinic here, my blood pressure is taken - a pointless exercise because the readings are not used as the basis of any clinical judgement. I am never asked whether I have hypertension or if I am taking any medication (for anything).

Medications used to treat diabetes and hypertension have side effects, some of which (rare as they are) are as bad or worse than the condition they are treating. Stop blaming the patient. It is time the medical profession and pharmacists did their jobs properly.

Edited June 19, 2011 by rreddin

[Scott]

My experience with Pharmacists in Thailand has been quite good. Most of them seem to speak English quite well and several have asked about why I am taking the medication. I've only been asked once about other medication.

I have often bought medication from a pharmacy and not been asked anything, but it wasn't the pharmacist, just an employee.

Basically, the Dr. is the one who should be checking the medication of patients. Unless a nurse or someone actually sits down with a patient and has a discussion, I think a lot of people wouldn't realize that some of what they are taking could have an adverse reaction on other medication.

[sirchai]

Raw food.

The study collected data and interviewed 331 elderly patients at a hospital's medicine department over the past six months.

It's not just elderly patients. A good friend of us got killed by an overdose of Antibiotics, directly injected into her veins. She's just 23, with two little kids, living in a small village.

The Antibiotics should have been injected within three days, but into her muscles, flesh, not into her blood.

She immediately had an Anaphylactic shock, collapsed, and they threw her in an Ambulance car to bring her to a hospital an hour away.

The doctor(s) had no idea that two Ampules of Adrenaline directly injected into her veins would have stopped the reaction. Just one story I had experienced in the LOS. Land of Sadness. :jap:

[hellodolly]

This is a problem in the States as well. A patient visiting more than one Dr. and each proscribing different drugs for different problems and they donot talk to each other.

Hypertension and diabetes often go hand in hand. That should make joined up treatment easier. It is not beyond the whit of a pharmacist or doctor to enquire about what medications, including herbal remedies, that the patient is taking and in what dosage. Yet, whenever I have bought hypertension medicines from a pharmacy in this country, I have never been asked whether it had been prescribed by my doctor or about the dosage or whether I was taking any other medication. Nor have I been advised by a pharmacist whether the medication is appropriate for me to take. In short, they sold it as if it was a candy bar.

Every time I visit a doctor or a clinic here, my blood pressure is taken - a pointless exercise because the readings are not used as the basis of any clinical judgement. I am never asked whether I have hypertension or if I am taking any medication (for anything).

Medications used to treat diabetes and hypertension have side effects, some of which (rare as they are) are as bad or worse than the condition they are treating. Stop blaming the patient. It is time the medical profession and pharmacists did their jobs properly.

Could you enlarge on the following paragraph you put up.

"Every time I visit a doctor or a clinic here, my blood pressure is taken - a pointless exercise because the readings are not used as the basis of any clinical judgement. I am never asked whether I have hypertension or if I am taking any medication (for anything).

I my self have no medical training other than first aid and depend on the doctor to take my blood pressure and make decisions from that. How would one go about diagnosing hypertension for himself."

To clarify and make it perfectly clear I only see one doctor and if I am going to take supplements I clear it with her. I also buy most every thing from her. The price is higher but my experience with her is that I can be assured I am getting a quality product. She recently agreed with me that Saw Plamento would be good for me and she advised me to buy it along with trazadone (which I take to relax me when I sleep) in the states when I go back there next month as it is expensive here in Thailand.

Edited June 19, 2011 by hellodolly

[hellodolly]

<br>

<br>Raw food.<br>

<br><br>The study collected data and interviewed 331 elderly patients at a hospital's medicine department over the past six months.<br><br>It's not just elderly patients. A good friend of us got killed by an overdose of Antibiotics, directly injected into her veins. She's just 23, with two little kids, living in a small village.<br><br>The Antibiotics should have been injected within three days, but into her muscles, flesh, not into her blood. <br><br>She immediately had an <b>Anaphylactic shock</b>,&nbsp;&nbsp;collapsed, and they threw her in an Ambulance car to bring her to a hospital an hour away.<br><br>The doctor(s) had no idea that two Ampules of&nbsp;&nbsp;Adrenaline directly injected into her veins would have stopped the reaction. Just one story I had experienced in the LOS. Land of Sadness. <img src="http://static.thaivisa.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/jap.gif" class="bbc_emoticon" alt="<img src="http://static.thaivisa.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/jap.gif" class="bbc_emoticon" alt=":jap:">"><br>

The example you give is not really surprising to me. I know in Canada

when you get away from the bigger cities the quality of doctoring goes

down. I know of one little town where the local hospital had a nurse on

call and for a doctor you would have to go to the next town.

Edited June 19, 2011 by Scott
formatting/Scott

[softgeorge]

Thais seem to self medicate. Don't know how many times when my wife has the sniffles and people come around with bags of drugs for this and that for her to take. Drugs that have been prescribed to others and passed around and around, some yrs old. Thai all seem to thinks they are chemists or doctors. Here take this it will cure a runny nose and diabeties trust me it is safe a friend of a friend gave to me for my kidney infection.

[tjansen]

What illness is there that a good diet won't prevent / cure?

[warfie]

I went to a local doctor here in Chiang Mai. I really just wanted to help me sleep.

While I was there I mentioned a stomach problem which makes me intolerant of spicy foods (a cruel and unnatural torture in itself, since I love it).

Whatever the h3ll it was he gave me was far worse than the tummy bug... within days I had severe cramps and I was sh1tting blood...

That was the last time I consulted that doctor...