Dementia Care

at a Glance

Catharine Jenkins, Laura Ginesi, Berni Keenan

Multiple Choice: Chapter 31 Medication for dementia-related problems

Question 1. An older person may have physical health problems as well as dementia. This often leads to prescription of a variety of drugs. Being prescribed four or more different medications is known as ‘polypharmacy’. This is problematic because:

A. It is difficult to keep track of all the different medicines, their doses and time to take them, so people with dementia often get it wrong
B. Medicines are very expensive, and these costs add up
C. Each medicine has side effects and in combination (particularly if a person with dementia accidentally takes the drug more than once) they lead an older person to be at greater risk of falls and other problems
D. Having more than one health problem and a lot of medications can mean the dementia is not taken so seriously