Abstract
Polypharmacy is a current problem in the field of healthcare. The increase in people's life expectancy, thanks to advances in research and a better quality of life, has made it so the population is characterized by a predominance of elderly individuals with multiple comorbidities that require medical treatment. There is no consensus in the literature for defining what polypharmacy is. Discrepancies are found in both quantitative and qualitative aspects, though the most accepted definition of polypharmacy is based on the use of five or more medications. Polypharmacy leads to various complications for both patients and the healthcare system, in many cases requiring hospitalizations which in large part could have been avoided. Therefore, it is very important to know the main risk factors, make the correct diagnosis, and detect inappropriate prescribing. All these aspects will be described in this article, which will also review the strategies for reducing polypharmacy by means of a prescription review, a medication conciliation, and deprescribing tools.
Published Version
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