Review Your Medications
Work with your pharmacist and doctor to keep every medicine appropriate and necessary, so your treatments help you without getting in each other's way.
The right medicines, kept right for you
Medicines do a great deal of good, and many older adults rely on several of them. Taking a number of medicines together can also raise the chance of side effects, of one drug working against another, and of feeling dizzy or unsteady, which can lead to falls.
Health changes over time, and a medicine that was right years ago may no longer be needed at the same dose, or at all. A regular review with a pharmacist or doctor, sometimes called deprescribing when medicines are safely reduced, keeps your list working for your life today.
Important: never start, stop, or change a medicine on your own. Some medicines must be reduced slowly and with guidance. Use this page to prepare for a helpful conversation with a professional.
How do you use your medicines?
This self-check is the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-5), a validated measure of how people actually take their medicines. It never tells you to change anything, only whether a conversation might help.
Why the number of medicines matters
We have left out a personal risk slider here on purpose. Because medicines are prescribed for a reason, the link between medicine counts and harm is hard to turn into a fair personal number. What the research does show is worth knowing.
Regular medicines is the common threshold for polypharmacy, the point where doctors look more closely for interactions and side effects.
Fall risk rises as the number of medicines grows, especially with sedatives and sleeping pills. A review can often bring it down safely. Dhalwani et al., 2017.
How to prepare for a review
Make one complete list
Write down every prescription, plus any over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, supplements, and herbal products, with the doses.
Use one pharmacy
When a single pharmacist sees everything you take, they can spot interactions and duplicates that might otherwise be missed.
Book a medication review
Most provinces fund a pharmacist review you can arrange directly. Take all your pill bottles with you.
Ask the key questions
For each medicine, ask whether it is still needed, whether the dose could be lower, and whether a safer option exists.
Follow a written plan
Ask for clear instructions, especially for any medicine being reduced, and never stop one suddenly on your own.
What the research shows
Taking many medicines raises the risk of harm
Taking several medicines at once, known as polypharmacy, is linked with a greater chance of side effects such as dizziness and confusion, which can contribute to falls and a loss of independence. Spotting and easing this is a core part of good care in later life.
Deprescribing can be done safely and helps
When guided by a professional, carefully reducing or stopping medicines that are no longer needed can lower side effects without losing benefit. The aim is fewer pills doing more good, not simply fewer pills.
Review tools flag medicines to reconsider
Professionals use checklists such as the Beers Criteria and the STOPP and START tools to identify medicines that are often best avoided in older adults, and treatments that may be missing. A structured review uses these to tailor your list to you.
2023 American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria. J Am Geriatr Soc. · O'Mahony, D., et al. (2023). STOPP/START criteria, version 3. European Geriatric Medicine.