Exam 11: Polypharmacy

When medications known to cause electrolyte imbalances are being used, which of the following should be performed weekly for 2 to 3 weeks when starting therapy and periodically once stable on the new diuretic?

Elders should have what levels assessed when working up the complaint of cognitive impairment?

A common source of drug toxicity in the elderly is impaired drug clearance by which organ(s)?

Which of the following describes the practice of treating medication side effects with other medications?

What medical condition is common in elders, even without diuretic therapy or beta-blocker use, because baroreceptors become less sensitive to change in posture and other compensatory systems are altered by frailty?

Although the brown bag method is a time-consuming method of assessment, it should be performed at least annually with the results documented in the patient's chart because it is the gold standard for office assessment of medication use.

The absence of a social group makes medication side effect difficult to differentiate from new medical problems because no one is present to witness the onset of a problem.

What medical professional is the only member of the healthcare team that actually witness the patient's use and outcome of medications, at least in the institutional setting?

A person's physiologic reserve is a strong determinant of his or her ability to tolerate medications and resist medication harm.

Cholinesterase inhibitors are actually documented in the medical literature as increasing the risk of falls, which would be predictable when you know that these medications increase the levels of what neurotransmitter that can cause bradycardia?

What method of creatinine clearance estimation underestimates GFR in obese patients and overestimates GFR in underweight patients?

Which of the following are perceived as a sign that people are growing old and dependent and therefore are commonly not reported to their family and physicians?

Which of the following are the most comprehensive instruments for measuring health literacy?

Which of the following is a commonly overlooked aspect of assessment of medication-related problems (MRPs)?

The purpose of which of the following is to identify drugs to avoid in older adults independent of diagnosis and considering diagnosis to reduce adverse drug reactions and improve medication selection and use in older adults?

What type of medications cause significant impairment in function and can accelerate progression of dementia, which results in increasingly less ability to participate in IADLs and ADLs?

Most medical literature commonly defines polypharmacy as the concomitant use of five medications, however, a particular number of drugs used at the same time does not always predict medication harm.

The first medication in the era of modern medicine use was in the early 1900s when which of the following was discovered to be a universal pain reliever?

The guidance on recommended medication use to treat chronic disease and medical problems is designed to demonstrate efficacy and rarely designed to tell how drugs will perform in the frail elder.

Polypharmacy, like any other geriatric syndrome, can look on the surface like a specific disease state.