Linda: How people feel – How many medicines are ‘too many’?
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Linda
Female
Age at interview: 53
Number of medicines: 5
Cultural background: British
Linda found the responsibility of having to take five medicines a day burdensome compared to the two slow-release tablets she now takes.
It just seemed to be too many tablets. I mean, as a nurse, I've heard this so many times in my career. ‘I just don't like taking so many tablets,’ and I thought, ‘Well, what's the difference? You can take one big one or two small ones; it's still the same amount of drug. What's the big deal?’ But now that I have to take all these tablets, I now understand completely what the big deal is. You just don't, it's the actual physical number of tablets that causes a problem. The tablets I'm now on are still the same as four tablets a day. They’re still the same amount. Because they are slow release, I can take two a day and that suits me fine, because I'm taking two tablets, once a day, instead of two tablets, two ... it's a purely psychological thing.
It's got nothing to do with the, what the drug is ... um ... what the dose is, what the side effects are, nothing. It's purely the number of tablets and the responsibility to take so many tablets in one day. It's just too ... I guess the responsibility is too much, really. You just don't want to do it. Once a day in the morning’s OK.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.