Polypharmacy
Ageing and Chronic Care
Definition. Polypharmacy is the concurrent use of multiple medicines by one person, commonly defined as five or more, which raises the risk of interactions and adverse drug events.
Explanation
Deprescribing interventions aim to reduce inappropriate medicines; a scoping review maps which types work (Manley et al., 2025). Medication safety, including polypharmacy, is a priority in WHO patient safety monitoring (World Health Organization, 2024).
Related concepts
Multimorbidity Medication error Frailty Clinical decision support system
Read on The Health Topics
- Understanding Deprescribing: Strategies for Effective Medication Management
- Assuring Safety Across Clinical Processes
References
Manley, E., Or, Z., & Brunn, M. (2025). What may work in deprescribing? A scoping review of intervention types, targets and outcomes (medRxiv preprint). https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.07.30.25328075
World Health Organization. (2024). Global patient safety report 2024. World Health Organization.
Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Polypharmacy. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/polypharmacy/