Balancing benefits and risks with multiple medicines
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring patients’ and GPs’ views on the balancing of benefits and risks with multiple medicines usage
IRAS ID
128757
Contact name
Joanne Reeve
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Liverpool
Research summary
The concurrent usage of multiple medicines, termed polypharmacy in the medical literature, offers a way to prevent and treat disease in the population but is also associated with various problems: adverse drug reactions, interactions between medicines and poor adherence to treatment as well as difficulties for doctors to maintain an overview of complex medical regimes. Given the responsibility of primary care for the management of chronic diseases, many of which are treated with several medicines, polypharmacy is a common feature in this type of care.
Current research on polypharmacy focuses on improving the usage of medicines by addressing the interaction between doctor and patient, for example in decision-making about medicines. Efforts to improve the situation are largely designed to reduce medication-related problems by offering guidelines and checklists. Factors related to the patient’s expectations, understanding and motivation for or against medicine-taking are not particularly well examined in relation to polypharmacy. The added burden placed on patients to manage a combination of treatments also remains to be explored.
By turning to the social sciences for suggestions about wider influences on views towards medicines, the proposed research aims to explore factors contributing to increased polypharmacy. A framework of theories describing the changing roles of and relations between individuals, organisations and institutions as “pharmaceuticalisation” will be used to guide the work. This opens up for the inclusion of aspects of patient’s experiences of using medicines and how risks and benefits with medicines are perceived.
The project will explore reasons for why prescribing and polypharmacy continues to increase despite the awareness of problems. Through a sequence of studies examining doctor, patient, healthcare system and social influences on polypharmacy the proposed research aims at contributing to increased understanding of drivers behind the high levels of prescribing and thereby suggest approaches for improvement.REC name
North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NW/0387
Date of REC Opinion
19 Jun 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion