Última alteração: 2019-11-06
Resumo
In health care, patients’ value depends not only on clinical therapies but also on several non-clinical perspectives, which define whether clinical therapies are going to be beneficiary or problematic. Recently, healthcare research has emphasized to explore non-clinical perspectives in care processes. This research explored non-clinical perspectives of polypharmacy through some patients' and physicians' participation and aimed to illustrate how physicians can reduce cases of polypharmacy or help patients in dealing with the adverse effects of this condition by focusing on non-clinical perspectives of polypharmacy. In this context, this research answered three specific questions: how patients experience consequences of polypharmacy; what causes polypharmacy; and what are the possible initiatives to manage polypharmacy. This research found that several non-clinical factors cause polypharmacy and trigger problematic phenomena in polypharmacy. Accordingly, several initiatives that targeted those factors have been suggested. Those initiatives will likely add value for patients who are in polypharmacy or who are likely to experience polypharmacy. The added value can prevent some potential costs related to the utilization of additional health services and improve care management processes for patients in polypharmacy.