A few off-hand comments in another thread got me wondering.
How many prescribed medications do you take?
1 a day? 4 a day? None? More than none, but not daily?
Two on a long-term basis for blood pressure, one additional one this week for a short-term condition. And I have one other long-term prescription that menopause is making moot, so haven’t taken that one in months.
My elderly mom takes seven, though two are just two different levels of warfarin taken in alternate days. But she has congestive heart failure and bladder issues.
Zero unless you count medicinal implants (Mirena), then one.
One blood pressure medication everyday, but I only take 1/2 tablet. (Beyond that, occasionally I take a sleep aid, and from time to time need something for a headache. Both are prescription, but rarely used.)
I said 3 per day, but it’s more convoluted than that. One of my blood pressure meds is a twice-a-day thing. The “baby aspirin” I take is every other day. I have one other prescription med that’s not OTC, but I was “prescribed” to take Vitamin B-12 and a multi-vitamin daily. I rounded all that to 3 for the poll
None, but that’s mostly due to the fact that I haven’t been to a doctor in a few years. I suspect that when I finally do go to see one (health insurance is supposed to be coming through within a month!) I’ll have to fight them putting me on a statin (red rice yeast put me into rhabdomyolysis, so it will take a lot of convincing to get me on a statin) and something for blood pressure - mine is in pre-hypertension, but I’d rather cut down on the nicotine level in my ecig before I start meds. I’m working on that now, in fact.
I’ll be *asking *for an anti-depressant though. And I’m kind of hoping I test low thyroid, 'cause something is just a bit out of whack with my endocrine system, I’m just not sure what. So probably either thyroid hormone or metformin (if it’s early diabetes and not thyroid.)
So assuming I had regular medical care, probably two or three. But voted zero 'cause that’s what it is right now.
It is easy to be on five necessary meds these days.
Since diabetes frequently comes bundled with hypertension and high lipids, it is common to be on metformin and glyburide for the diabetes, an ACE inhibitor for renal protection, a beta blocker for BP and cardioprotection, and a statin for lipids.
I often see patients on more than a dozen Rx meds.
Just one, but it’s an important one: Warfarin. Although I could probably use some other(s).
That pretty much describes me. Two statins, two blood pressure medications, warfarin, metformin (the latter twice a day). My doctor (who has not taken new patients for about 20 years and so has an increasingly elderly clientele) tells me that since he started prescribing statins to just about everybody, his patients have stopped dying from heart attacks. They will eventually get either cancer or heart failure. He doesn’t think it is the cholesterol lowering effect but speculates that it calms inflammation. Since I had a heart attack 48 years ago and am still going, I can only say it works for me.
I’m on two for epilepsy. They mostly work, so I’ll be sticking with them for life. Might end up on a third. Really, the only way to cut down will to have a temporal lobectomy, which is obviously an option of last resort.
I have PCOS which kind of goes hand-in-hand with diabetes symptoms, so I take Metformin and zocor. And the Pill.
I was having problems with my heart racing and my doc found something to fix it - a beta blocker.
I also take a PPI inhibitor because my stomach stopped working right last year and it was awful.
I’m only 34 :-/
I do have a prescribed asthma inhaler but my use of it is so infrequent I put down “none” - I will sometimes be able to go months without needing the rescue inhaler, it’s really a “just in case” thing and not at all a regular medicine (my efforts to avoid allergens, though, is a constant and daily affair… it’s just doesn’t require a prescription). I’ve got a pretty good regime of OTC allergy meds that are managing my allergies well.
I’m hoping to follow in my dad’s footsteps - he was prescription free until his early 80’s although now he does have a couple.
Three- metformin for dibetes, Vybriid for depression and Medroxyprogesterone to thin my uterine lining.
three. Two pills daily and a weekly blood pressure patch. The patch delivers my dose every day.
Thankfully I don’t require any pain meds or narcotics. Just the standard omeprazole for acid reflux and another pill.
I really didn’t want the omeprazole . But my throat/stomach was scoped and I had a lot of irritation from acid. Which is why I used to wake up at night puking acid.
4 daily and a 5th as needed. (monophasic BC, four psych meds.)
Truth. It’s to the point where if I walk into a home and the patient tells me they’re on no medications, or even just two, I grill the heck out of them and call the physician’s office to do a medication reconciliation, 'cause I’m sure as shit they’re not telling me everything. (And I’m usually right - the doctor’s often shocked that his patient never filled the half dozen prescriptions he’s written in the past year!)
I take 3 prescribed meds regularly and a couple of others sporadically, which seems about average for a middle-aged person in my experience.
When I worked in health care I frequently encountered elderly patients (usually nursing home residents) who were on 20-30 medications per day. In many cases it seemed like this was because the patients were unable to protest due to debility and their family members were unwilling to take the “risk” of discontinuing medications because of their own fears of losing loved ones.
My mother was also a health care professional, so she and I have had a long, frank talk about what types of medications are appropriate for end-of-life care.
Three: Celexa for depression, a thyroid med, and prednisone for Addison’s.
Hard to imagine taking a dozen prescription meds at a time. I thought three was a lot!
I voted 1/day.
I have two active prescriptions - a statin and an NSAID. But my arm is finally (mostly) behaving itself, so I don’t take the NSAID any more.
I also take fish oil, glucosomine, and vitamins B complex and D…all under the instructions of my GP.
Zero until I hit 56 and was diagnosed with ideopathic atrial fibrilation. That brought in a heavy dose of flecainide (that three ablations over the years has reduced a bit). Then at 60 the type II diabetes appeared, with its attendant glucophage. And then the statin. So at 65 I’m holding a three for the time being.