What is a medication review and how do I ask for one?

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A medication review is a dedicated appointment where a clinician - doctor or pharmacist - goes through everything you take, prescription and otherwise, checking each drug for purpose, effectiveness, interactions, duplicates, and age-appropriateness. NIA's medication safety guidance recommends it routinely for older adults on multiple medications, and it exists precisely because lists accumulate in fragments across specialists.

How to ask: literally ask - book a longer appointment and say you want a medication review, or ask your pharmacist, who in many places can do a formal review covered by insurance. The brown-bag method is the gold standard for preparation: every bottle, blister pack, vitamin, cream, eye drop, patch, and as-needed pill in a bag, physically carried in - the written list always misses something, and the bag never lies.

The questions that make it productive, for each drug: why am I taking this - the original reason and whether it still exists; what happens if I stop; is the dose right for my age and kidneys; does it interact with anything else in the bag; and is there a non-drug alternative. Deprescribing, when it happens, is gradual and supervised - never stop blood pressure, heart, seizure, or mental health medications abruptly on your own.

The triggers to book one now: a new specialist added a drug, a hospital discharge changed the list, new symptoms like dizziness or confusion appeared, or it has simply been over a year.

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What is a medication review and how do I ask for one?

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