A recent post on the blog DestinationRX draws attention to the fact that students as young as middle school are trading their prescription drugs for alcohol, or other prescription drugs. The post references an eFlux Media article that details how 15 students at a Boulder, Colorado middle school were busted for a trading scam that involved the ADHD drugs Strattera and Concerta, and alcohol.

As the author of the post points out, middle school kids used to trade baseball cards. How is that we have arrived at prescription drugs instead of baseball cards? When I was in middle school (1987-1989), I didn’t know anyone taking any sort of prescription medicine whatsoever. In fact, I remember finding out that my little cousin was taking Ritalin for ADHD and feeling horrified that “it had come to such drastic measures.” I think at that time, the concept of feeding kids strong prescription meds was still relatively foreign. Today, it’s as regular as signing your kids up for soccer. I guess that’s why kids have no problem trading their drugs like baseball cards.

According to a recent CNN.com article, you shouldn’t be too quick to assume that your aging loved ones are experiencing symptoms of Alzheimer’s or dementia… it could just be a bad case of over-medication.

“Every year, 38 million older Americans suffer drug complications, 180,000 of which are life-threatening, according to research by Dr. Jerry Gurwitz, chief of geriatric medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

The risk for drug errors is seven times greater in seniors than in people under age 65, according to Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefits manager.”

A list of drugs that could potentially be inappropriate for seniors, or that could cause potential complications for seniors can be found online.

I think the over-medication of seniors is probably a much bigger problem than people realize. While it is great that there are so many medications available to help senior citizens enjoy better health, it’s pretty easy to imagine the plethora of pills that could get prescribed to one person, and how quickly those numerous prescriptions could become a jumble of side effects. With the way society is today, I think we all need to be more diligent about keeping track of prescriptions - particularly those that have been prescribed to the elderly.