Over-medication poses risks for seniors - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

It's a common scenario: an older relative suddenly becomes confused, dizzy, or depressed. Often, the trigger isn't their age -- it's what's in their drug cabinet.   

Seniors are taking a lot of medication for medical problems. One survey found people in their late 60s are taking, on average, 14 medications a year. By their 80s, they're taking 18 drugs.

Billy Reeves of Griffin says he can believe it because he was taking more than that.

At 87, Reeves, is still pretty comfortable climbing behind the wheel. But a few years ago, in his late 70s, Reeves nearly gave up driving because he says he started feeling confused, and anxious.

"I got to the point where I was afraid to drive, literally afraid to drive.  And I only drove to work and back, and that's all I drove, and it was still scary," said Reeves.

Reeves deteriorated quickly from an independent guy who'd been running his Griffin dry cleaning for 65 years to someone who felt like his life was shutting down. He couldn't think clearly, couldn't remember things -- some days it was hard to just to stand up, because his balance was off.
 
"I was in really bad shape, I really was," said Reeves.

So what was happening? Reeves asked consultant pharmacist Armon Neel, an expert on drugs and how they interact in the body, to sit down with him and look at the medications he was taking.

"And when he came to me, he was up in the 20s in drugs," said Neel.

And Reeves says his doctor had just handed him another prescription.
 
"I said, ‘Doctor, I'm over-medicated!  I'm taking all of this stuff.'  And he says, ‘You're not over medicated, I know what I'm doing,'" said Reeves.

But Neel, author of "Are Your Prescriptions Killing You?" says too often doctors prescribe drugs to older patients without thinking about adverse drug reactions and side effects, even though it's not unusually seniors to be taking a dozen or more drugs, prescribed by various doctors.
    
"The most I've had from one single physician on one patient was 57 drugs," said Neel.

Neel made a list of each medication that Reeves was taking, what side effects it could cause, and how it might be reacting to other drugs he was taking. He says too often, medication-related problems like depression, confusion, dizziness and falls are overlooked as signs of aging.

"I could see what so many of these things were doing, but yet my doctor would not change it for anything," said Reeves.

Reeves found a new doctor and Neel helped him taper off all the drugs he was on.

"In my office practice, I average about a 74 percent reduction in the amount of drugs they take," said Neel.

"It took a while, but he finally got me off of the majority of them," said Reeves.  "And it wasn't too long that I began to feel all these problems going away."

Today, Billy Reeves is back to feeling like his old self.

No more confusion, no more anxiety, and he says he will never again take a pill without first asking questions.

If you're concerned about your medication, talk to your doctor, or your pharmacist.

In Reeves' case, it was not safe for him to abruptly stop taking his medication so he had to taper off it gradually.

The American Geriatric Society has created a list of risky medications for seniors.
     
To see it, go to: http://www.americangeriatrics.org/files/documents/beers/2012BeersCriteria_JAGS.pdf