Mary: Benefits and disadvantages – What a high number of medicines signifies
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Mary
Female
Age at interview: 66
Number of medicines: 8
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Mary is mostly bothered by the amount of medicines that she takes.
Mary:
The amount. That's about it. I mean, I take 20 tablets. That sounds ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous! 20 tablets! I mean, I was taking 22 and, as I said, I'm down two, but that's even ridiculous. As I said, shake me and I rattle. It is, it's just … but I've got to take it for this, this, this and this, you know. I think, ‘My goodness, what's next?’ I'm hoping, I don't want to take any more or at least get rid of some, but I don't think I'll be able to get rid of any, because they're virtually all my permanent things now, what I have to take.
Jacqueline:
At what point, Mary, did the amount start to bother you?
Mary:
I think since the Webster-pak came out. Then I realised how many tablets I was actually on and I thought to myself, ‘My goodness, I'm on that many!’ Then I had a look to see what the list was, you know. Then I thought, ‘Well, OK. I take that one three times a day. I take that one three times a day and take that one ...’ There's about four or five of them that I take three times a day, so ... you know, that's enough. But then to have extras for the blood pressure, the cholesterol and all that sort of thing, it's incredible. It really is, just the amount.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.