TL;DR
A KFF Health News report highlights the risks that can arise when people take multiple medications, including interactions and side effects. Clinicians and pharmacists interviewed recommend keeping an up-to-date medication list and discussing concerns about tapering or stopping drugs with a prescriber; patients should not stop medicines on their own.
A KFF Health News report warns that taking several medications can raise the chance of harmful interactions and side effects, and urges people with concerns to review their prescriptions with a clinician rather than stop them on their own. The report points to polypharmacy among older adults and recommends keeping a current list of prescriptions, vitamins and supplements to support medication reviews across multiple providers.
The report recounts the experience of Jonathan Bledsoe, a Reading, Pennsylvania, Marine veteran who had taken several medications, including prescriptions for mood stabilization and cholesterol. He told KFF Health News that his urine became the color of brewed coffee. After he raised the symptoms with his doctors, he learned that an interaction among his medications was beginning to damage his liver. Following a medication change, his liver and kidney function returned to normal, according to the report.
The story cites a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine that found the share of Americans older than 65 taking five or more medications nearly doubled between 2000 and 2020. The report says more than a third of older adults now take at least five medications a day. Amanda Mixon, a hospitalist and associate professor of bioinformatics at Vanderbilt University, said she sees older patients taking an average of 16 medications, often prescribed by multiple clinicians and filled at different pharmacies.
One risk is a prescribing cascade: a medicine causes a side effect, a second drug is prescribed to address it, and the growing combination may lead to further problems. The report gives the example of a water pill used for heart failure that increases urination; incontinence may then be treated with another medication. The clinicians interviewed describe deprescribing as an intentional, supervised process of tapering medicines that are no longer needed or whose risks outweigh their benefits.
When Medication Lists Keep Growing
Medication reviews matter because treatment plans can accumulate over time, especially when different specialists prescribe drugs for separate conditions. As Mixon told KFF Health News, the chance of interactions can rise as medications are added, and side effects may build gradually. For older adults, changes in how the body processes medicines can also affect the balance between a drug’s intended benefit and its risks.
The consequences can be difficult to identify when symptoms resemble new health problems. The report notes possible effects such as falls, memory problems, constipation and diarrhea. That does not mean a medication is necessarily inappropriate: many medicines play an important role in treating illness and supporting longevity. The point of a review is to check the full regimen and the patient’s experience, not to reduce the number of prescriptions as an end in itself.
For patients, a practical first step is to bring a complete list to appointments and ask whether each medicine remains necessary, whether it could be contributing to a new symptom, and whether a supervised taper is appropriate. The report stresses that deprescribing should be discussed with a prescriber; patients should not abruptly stop or alter a prescription without professional advice.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
How Deprescribing Entered the Discussion
The report says interest in deprescribing has grown over the past decade alongside increased use of multiple medications and concerns about related harms. The process is not simply stopping a drug: the clinician and patient consider the reason it was prescribed, current benefits and risks, and whether it needs to be reduced gradually. Pharmacist DeLon Canterbury, who leads a consulting company focused on helping patients discontinue unnecessary medicines, said the science around safe tapering is newer and is not yet widely taught in medical schools.
Medication coordination can be harder when a person sees providers in different health systems, where patient records may not be shared. Canterbury cautioned that patients should not assume a pharmacist or another clinician is checking every prescription in the background. Pharmacist Jen Hammons, director of rural health advancement at the Appalachian College of Pharmacy, recommends carrying a written medication list. The report says that list should include vitamins and supplements, as well as prescriptions.
The article also describes a policy development: in 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued guidance clarifying how physicians and pharmacists can be paid for medication reviews and helping patients taper when appropriate. The report says clinicians had previously expressed uncertainty about payment for the time-intensive work. Separately, it notes that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has advocated reducing psychiatric medication use, a position that has polarized the medical community; the report does not present that political stance as clinical guidance for individual patients.
“As you accumulate more and more medications, the chance of them interacting with each other and having bad interactions increases.”
— Amanda Mixon, Vanderbilt University hospitalist and associate professor of bioinformatics
pill organizer with medication list
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
What a Medication Review Can Establish
The report does not identify how many medication interactions occur nationally or quantify the risk for an individual taking a particular combination. A medication count alone does not establish that a treatment plan is unsafe: the appropriateness of each drug depends on the person’s diagnoses, symptoms, doses and clinical history. Bledsoe’s experience is a reported case, not evidence that every patient with multiple prescriptions will experience liver damage.
It is also not clear from the report how widely the 2025 Medicare payment guidance will change access to medication reviews or tapering services. The report says safe deprescribing practices are still not widely taught, but does not provide a national measure of clinician training. Decisions about stopping or reducing a medication require individualized advice, and the article does not offer a tapering schedule for any specific drug.
deprescribing medication guidebook
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Bring the Full List to Your Clinician
People concerned about a side effect or a growing prescription list can ask a primary care clinician or specialist to review every medication, including over-the-counter products, vitamins and supplements. The report recommends keeping the list current and carrying it to appointments. Patients can ask what each drug is for, whether it may interact with another item, and whether any change should be made under supervision.
For people considering deprescribing, the next step is a conversation with the clinician responsible for the treatment or another qualified professional familiar with their health history. That clinician can determine whether a medicine should continue and, if a change is appropriate, explain how to make it safely. The report does not specify further policy milestones following the CMS guidance.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Key Questions
What does deprescribing mean?
Deprescribing is a planned review and, when appropriate, gradual reduction or discontinuation of a medication under professional supervision. It is not a recommendation to stop prescriptions without medical advice.
What should I bring to a medication review?
Bring an up-to-date list of prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and supplements. Include doses if known, and tell the clinician about new symptoms or changes you have noticed.
Should I stop a medicine if I think it is causing a side effect?
Do not stop or change a prescribed medicine on your own. Contact the prescribing clinician or another qualified health professional to discuss the symptom and whether a supervised change is appropriate.
Does taking five or more medicines mean my treatment is unsafe?
No. The number of medicines alone does not show whether a regimen is appropriate. A clinician needs to review the medicines, doses, conditions being treated and possible side effects or interactions.
Source: rss
