An analysis of Medicare data by The Wall Street Journal found that “One in six seniors enrolled in Medicare’s drug benefit were prescribed eight or more medications at the same time.” A team from the WSJ writes:

For years, Barbara Schmidt’s family feared an illness was behind a pattern of terrifying falls that repeatedly landed the 83-year-old great-grandmother in surgery with broken bones. Instead, Schmidt’s frequent tumbles might have been tied to something else: medications intended to make her better.

Schmidt, who lives with her husband of 65 years in Lewes, Del., filled prescriptions for more than a dozen different drugs in the past year, according to pharmacy and medical records.

That isn’t unusual for America’s seniors, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicare data. One in six of the 46 million seniors enrolled in Medicare’s drug benefit, which pays for most drugs taken by older Americans, were prescribed eight or more medications.

Schmidt considers herself healthy—she still works a few days a week at a Marshalls store, and she is a dedicated crafter who creates intricate birthday cards for her four children, 14 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. But osteoporosis has made her bones brittle, while arthritis and back problems sometimes cause agony. Schmidt counts nine different operations over the years, including replacements for both hips and knees. She has also suffered from anxiety and sleep issues, largely related to the pain.

Doctors layered on medications to help.

Among the earliest was gabapentin, which she says started about a decade ago for lingering back problems. The drug seemed to help with her pain, and she wanted to continue her active life, so she kept taking it, getting up to three 300-milligram doses a day.

For years, records show, Schmidt also took diazepam for anxiety. The drug is better known as Valium, from the class of medications called benzodiazepines.

Barbara Schmidt, 83, in a red sweater looking off to the side.
Barbara Schmidt, 83, still considers herself healthy. Hannah Yoon for WSJ
More recently, she has had prescriptions for hydroxyzine, an antihistamine sometimes used as an anxiety treatment, and methocarbamol, a muscle relaxant that she typically took daily with the gabapentin. For sleep, she got trazodone, an antidepressant, though she had no depression diagnosis.

Some of the drugs Schmidt took are on a widely used list of medications that might be dangerous for seniors. The guidelines, maintained by the American Geriatrics Society and named the “Beers Criteria” after the doctor who first led their development, suggest some drugs should almost never be taken by older patients. That includes Schmidt’s benzodiazepine diazepam, antihistamine hydroxyzine and muscle relaxant methocarbamol.

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