Alzheimer’s disease patients prescribed fistfuls of daily drugs are at greater risk of harm, a new study warns.

Patients with Alzheimer’s prescribed five or more daily medications suffer from more symptoms, falls and hospitalizations, and they are at greater risk of death, researchers found.

“They also experienced more functional decline, required more assistance with activities of daily living like eating, bathing and dressing, and were more likely to need an assistive device like a cane or walker,” said lead researcher Martha Coates, a postdoctoral research fellow with Drexel University’s College of Nursing, in Philadelphia.

Taking five or more drugs daily, called polypharmacy, is a significant concern for folks as they age, researchers noted.

“The cut-off of point of five or more medications daily has been associated with adverse health outcomes in previous research, and as the number of medications increase the risk of adverse drug events and harm increases,” Coates said in a Drexel news release.

Estimates show that more than 30% of seniors are affected by polypharmacy, researchers said in background notes.

However, there is little research on how polypharmacy affects people with Alzheimer’s or related dementias, researchers said.

For this study, researchers drew data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, a research project from Johns Hopkins University focusing on Medicare beneficiaries.

They analyzed a sample of more than 2,000 people from 2016 to 2019 to track changes in symptoms, diseases and physical function.

“We found that older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and polypharmacy experienced more unpleasant symptoms, increased odds of falling, being hospitalized and mortality compared to those without Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and polypharmacy,” Coates said.

The new study was published recently in the journal Biological Research for Nursing.

There are tools available to help health care providers manage heavy medication regimens for older adults, but these tools aren’t specifically designed to fit the needs of people with Alzheimer’s or dementia, Coated noted.

More research is needed to develop strategies to prevent or manage polypharmacy in seniors afflicted with Alzheimer’s, Coates said.

“The older adult population is growing in the U.S., with an estimated 80 million individuals over the age of 65 by 2040,” said Coates. “This means that the number of older adults diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias will also increase, and currently there is no cure. Avoiding adverse outcomes related to polypharmacy can improve quality of life and prevent excess disability for older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.”