My mother-in-law moved in with us when she was 82. As her physical condition gradually deteriorated, the number of medications she was taking for various ailments increased: two for high blood pressure, two to promote gastric motility, one for congestive heart failure, one synthetic thyroid hormone, an expectorant, and two inhalers for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In addition, there was the occasional antibiotic for recurrent pneumonia. The drugs were prescribed by at least three different groups of doctors, none of whom communicated with the others. It soon became difficult to tell a new malady from a side effect of one of the drugs, or a potentially harmful interaction between the combinations of chemicals in her system.
A year or two into her time with us, she started to have an irregular heartbeat, an arrhythmia. After EKGs, a Holter monitor, and stress tests, the arrhythmia was diagnosed as a side ...
