ArticleThe Permanente journal2020
Refining the Definition of Polypharmacy and Its Link to Disability in Older Adults: Conceptualizing Necessary Polypharmacy, Unnecessary Polypharmacy, and Polypharmacy of Unclear Benefit.
Article in The Permanente journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Polypharmacy among COVID-19 patients: A systematic review.Journal of the American Pharmacists Association : JAPhAPooled it
- Polypharmacy, Potential Drug-Drug Interactions and Medication Non-Adherence in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Longitudinal Study.Neurology and therapy · 2026Article
- Appropriateness over Numbers: Pharmacological Burden and Scalable Medication Review in Older Adults.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Article
- Glycemic Control and Utilization Risk With the Conversion of Glimepiride to Glipizide in Adults 64 Years and Older at an Integrated Health Care System.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Non-interventional Changes of the FORTA Score are Associated with Changes of Cognitive and Physical Function Tests in Community-Dwelling Older People.Drugs & aging · 2026Article
- Kinematic Biomarkers of Functional Disability in Older Adults: Analysis of the Timed Up and Go Test.Biosensors · 2025Article
- Polypharmacy in spinal cord injury: Matched cohort analysis comparing drug classes, medical complications, and healthcare utilization metrics with 24-month follow-up.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Effect of Instant Messaging-Based Integrated Healthcare on Medical Service Use and Care Outcomes in Patients with Disabilities.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Kinematic and Kinetic Gait Principal Component Domains in Older Adults With and Without Functional Disability: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
- Analysis of clinical pharmacists' interventions in a rehabilitation setting.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2025Article
- Anticholinergic Burden and Dry Mouth Problems Among Older Adults (≥ 50 Years) Receiving Dental Care-A Retrospective, Cross-Sectional Analysis.Clinical and experimental dental research · 2024Article
- Article
- Potentially Inappropriate Medication: A Pilot Study in Institutionalized Older Adults.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Validation of MyFORTA: An Automated Tool to Improve Medications in Older People Based on the FORTA List.Drugs & aging · 2024Article
- An Approach to Deprescribe Antidepressants for Depression in Older Adults: Consensus, Multidisciplinary Practice Recommendations.The Permanente journal · 2023Article
- Potentially Inappropriate Medication at Admission and at Discharge: A Geriatric Study in an Internal Medicine Service in Portugal.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Exploring Older Adult Health Literacy in the Day-to-Day Management of Polypharmacy and Making Decisions About Deprescribing: A Mixed Methods Study.Health literacy research and practice · 2023Article
- Factors which influence the deprescribing decisions of community-living older adults and GPs in Australia.Health & social care in the community · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The term polypharmacy in older adults is generally used in a pejorative context in the medical literature. Because of its link to geriatric syndromes and disability, the avoidance of polypharmacy is usually recommended in older adults as a strategy to optimize functional status. However, there are many polypharmacy regimens based on high-quality trials that clearly reduce the risk of disability in older adults. Other guidelines for older adults recommend the use of additional medications that may or may not be evidence based and that may or may not reduce disability. Therefore, we propose that, in the geriatric literature, polypharmacy now be categorized as "necessary polypharmacy," "unnecessary polypharmacy," or "polypharmacy of unclear benefit." In this article, we discuss the 3 categories of polypharmacy and give examples on each polypharmacy regimen and its potential relationship to disability in older adults.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.