Abstract
Most patients with chronic progressive diseases are treated with several drugs to modify their life-limiting illness(es), if still possible, and to relieve any symptoms caused by it (them). According to a European survey, patients with advanced cancer who are taking opioids for moderate or severe pain are given 7.8 medications on average, and approximately 45% of patients receive unnecessary or potentially unnecessary drugs. Polypharmacy defined either by the use of 5 or more medications (including over-the-counter medicines) or by the inappropriateness of the prescription raises risks of serious adverse effects and drug–drug interactions (DDIs).
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 654-656 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Polish Archives of Internal Medicine |
Volume | 129 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 30 Oct 2019 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‑NonCommercial‑ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY‑NC‑SA 4.0), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited, distributed under the same license, and used for non-commercial purposes only.Keywords
- chronic progressive diseases
- life-limiting illness
- cancer