Notes to editors
For further information, or to request an interview with one of the report’s authors, please contact: Cara Phillips, Senior Press and Public Affairs Officer, at The King’s Fund on 020 7307 2603 or email c.phillips@kingsfund.org.uk. For out-of-hours assistance: 07584 146035
Polypharmacy and medicines optimisation: making it safe and sound by Martin Duerden, Tony Avery and Rupert Payne is available free to download or to purchase for £10.
Between 1995 and 2010 the proportion of people taking 10 or more drugs in a study of 300,000 patients in Scotland increased from 1.9 per cent to 5.8 per cent. This was a study by Guthrie and Makubate (2012), ‘The rising tide of polypharmacy and potentially serious drug interactions 1995–2010: repeated cross sectional analysis of dispensed prescribing in one region’. Primary Health Care Research & Development, vol 13, supp S1: 45 2E.2.