Helen: How people feel – How many medicines are ‘too many’?
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Helen
Female
Age at interview: 58
Number of medicines: 10
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Helen is resentful about having to take a number of medicines for the rest of her life, particularly as they are not all working as well as she would like at reducing the pain from her arthritis.
I also probably resent a little bit having to take so many medications, and the thought that I'll probably be doing this for the rest of my life, no matter what. Yeah, I don't really like it, but I know that's what I've got to do, and part of me still resists … I think the other thing too, is I think I expected more from the medications I'm taking for arthritis, than what I'm getting. I kind of saw them as a bit of a, oh well, this will fix it up, and it hasn't. Yes, it's ameliorated some of the pain that I deal with, but it hasn't taken it away. I guess I probably feel a little bit resentful about that. It doesn't mean I blame medications for not doing the right thing, but I don't feel so inclined to take them, because they aren't relieving all the pain I feel.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.