Taking Multiple Medications? You May Want to Consider Cutting Back

A significant share of adults 65-plus take five or more prescription drugs, increasing their risk for dangerous side effects

Rachel Nania,

Updated July 14, 2025

AARP

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En español

Published February 27, 2025

/ Updated July 14, 2025

Animation: AARP; (Source: Getty Images)

If you’re one of the millions of older Americans on multiple medications, it may be time to ask your doctor if all those drugs are doing you more harm than good.

There’s a growing trend when it comes to prescribing medications, and surprisingly, it has nothing to do with writing new prescriptions. Instead, it’s all about working with your doctor to scale back on unnecessary pills and potions.

Deprescribing, as it’s called, is garnering significant interest from older adults. A recent report from the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging found that more than 80 percent of people ages 50 and older who take prescription medication said they’d like to stop one or more of them if their doctor gave the green light — and for good reason.

The more medications a person takes, the more likely they are to experience side effects from medication interactions, says Milta Little, a geriatric medicine specialist and an associate professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. And these side effects can lead to falls, frailty, confusion, weight loss — even death, research shows. Every day, more than 750 U.S. adults 65 and older are hospitalized for medication-related reactions, according to a report from the nonprofit Lown Institute. The same report predicts that these reactions will cause 150,000 premature deaths by 2030.

Sometimes a medication prescribed to treat one condition can worsen another health issue or cause a new one, the National Institute on Aging says. Age-related changes in the body can also affect the way medication is absorbed and used, increasing the risk for complications in older individuals.

“So the more medications you’re on, you’re just putting yourself at more risk of some of these preventable issues,” says Shannan Takhar, assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco School of Pharmacy and an ambulatory care pharmacist at UC Davis Health.

The problem is that older adults tend to take a lot of medications. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, roughly 1 in 5 adults ages 40 to 79 take five or more prescription medications. Among adults 65 and older, more than 40 percent take five or more prescription drugs, the Lown Institute reports, and nearly 20 percent take more than 10. When over-the-counter drugs are included, two-thirds of adults 65 and older take five or more medications.

Why do we take so many meds?

It’s not uncommon for adults to accumulate medications as they age. Chronic conditions, such as arthritis, high blood pressure and diabetes, become increasingly common with increasing age, and medications can help manage these issues. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most commonly used medications among U.S. adults in their 60s and 70s are for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Another contributor: When a person has multiple health problems, they’re more likely to see more than one doctor — they may have a cardiologist to manage their heart disease and a rheumatologist for arthritis in addition to their primary care physician. “Before we know it, there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen adding a bunch of different medications,” Little says.

There’s also the issue of what Little calls “the prescribing cascade,” where a doctor might prescribe a medication to treat a health issue, and that medication causes a side effect. “So then we prescribe a medicine, or they go and get something over the counter, to address that issue,” Little says, and the medications keep piling on.

The availability of options also adds to the problem, Takhar says. According to the Food and Drug Administration, more than 20,000 prescription drugs are approved for use in the U.S. “It feels like patients have a likelihood of being on a lot more medications today because there’s so much more available than in the past. And so we just need to be really cautious that we’re using them in an effective way,” she says.

Interested in scaling back? Here’s how to go about it

If you’re interested in reducing the number of medications you’re taking, never attempt to do so on your own. “Not all medicines can just be stopped,” Takhar says. “Sometimes we have to taper off slowly or monitor certain things.”

Instead, make a detailed list of everything you take — don’t forget about over-the-counter medications, plus vitamins and other supplements — and set up a time with your doctor to go through that list, separate from a routine visit. So-called medication reviews are covered under Medicare Part D for many older adults.

When reviewing your list, ask if each medication you’re taking is necessary. Perhaps you were prescribed a pill a few years ago when you were hospitalized — do you still need a daily dose? Each medicine on the list should match a condition the patient has, Takhar says. “If they can’t draw that connection, that’s a great place to start asking questions,” she adds.

And if certain medications are causing unwanted side effects, ask if there’s a similar drug that may be better for you.

If your doctor recommends going off a medication or reducing your dosage, be sure you know what to expect. Will any symptoms reemerge, or will side effects pop up? If so, how will you manage them?

Importantly, make these medication reviews a routine practice. “We really do see a huge benefit from deprescribing. It’s very, very powerful to see how people will sometimes feel better, are more functional and can live longer when we start taking away medications,” Little says.

Polypharmacy and Mental Well-being

New research from AARP finds that taking multiple medications may impact the mental well-being of older adults. Results from a survey of adults ages 40-plus, published June 20, 2025, found that over half (55 percent) of those taking five or more medications (sometimes referred to as polypharmacy) reported low mental well-being, compared to 46 percent of those who take fewer than five medications.

Similarly, 47 percent of adults ages 40-plus taking five or more medications had low life satisfaction, compared to 37 percent of those who take four or fewer medications.

“Those with multiple medical conditions are more likely to experience polypharmacy, as well as medical side effects and unpleasant drug interactions — realities that can have detrimental impacts in the form of social isolation, life satisfaction and mental well-being,” the researchers write.

“The connection that emerges from still-limited research once again underscores the importance of increasing healthy habits (both physical and mental) to delay the onset of medical conditions and associated use of prescription medications.”

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