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Medicines: Managing the Impact of Medicine on Your Brain Health

Administration on Aging / ACL. "Medicines: Managing the Impact of Medicine on Your Brain Health."

Key findings used in wiki

  • As people age, the body can process medicines differently, increasing the importance of reviewing medication effects, dosing, and interactions over time.
  • A practical medication review should include prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, supplements, alcohol use, and other health conditions that might change risk.
  • The guide recommends asking direct questions about what each medicine is for, how to take it, what side effects to watch for, whether it could affect thinking / brain function, and whether safer or non-drug alternatives exist.
  • It warns that abruptly stopping some medicines can be dangerous, so changes should be reviewed with a clinician.
  • It also flags longer-term opioid use as a special risk area for some older adults and points families toward non-opioid pain-management options when appropriate.