Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The practice of prescribing multiple medications for an individual patient, especially excessively, for a single disease.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The prescribeing of too many medicines, especially in one prescription.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act or practice of prescribing too many medicines.
  • noun A prescription made up of many medicines or ingredients.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine The use of multiple drugs in a single prescription
  • noun medicine The use of multiple drugs to treat multiple concurrent disorders in the same patient; especially the indiscriminate prescription of many drugs to elderly patients

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • "The real message is doctors who care for older patients need to spend a lot of time looking at medications and avoiding what we call polypharmacy which means too many medications," says Dr. Pfohl.

    unknown title 2009

  • Even though the serious problems with polypharmacy are known and expected, polypharmacy is growing in mental health care, not decreasing.

    Homeopathy: A Healthier Way to Treat Depression? Dana Ullman 2010

  • Even though the serious problems with polypharmacy are known and expected, polypharmacy is growing in mental health care, not decreasing.

    Dana Ullman: Homeopathy: A Healthier Way to Treat Depression? Dana Ullman 2010

  • This is called polypharmacy, which is the administration of excessive medications, and Holland said it's one of the leading causes of drug overdoses in the country.

    FOXNews.com 2009

  • In fact, many of the new blockbuster diseases from adult ADHD and RA to fibromyalgia are treated with new drugs piled on top of existing ones that aren't working, a Pharma contrivance called polypharmacy.

    Martha Rosenberg: 7 Diseases Big Pharma Hopes You Get in 2012 Martha Rosenberg 2011

  • In fact, many of the new blockbuster diseases from adult ADHD and RA to fibromyalgia are treated with new drugs piled on top of existing ones that aren't working, a Pharma contrivance called polypharmacy.

    Martha Rosenberg: 7 Diseases Big Pharma Hopes You Get in 2012 Martha Rosenberg 2011

  • In fact, many of the new blockbuster diseases from adult ADHD and RA to fibromyalgia are treated with new drugs piled on top of existing ones that aren't working, a Pharma contrivance called polypharmacy.

    Martha Rosenberg: 7 Diseases Big Pharma Hopes You Get in 2012 Martha Rosenberg 2011

  • In fact, many of the new blockbuster diseases from adult ADHD and RA to fibromyalgia are treated with new drugs piled on top of existing ones that aren't working, a Pharma contrivance called polypharmacy.

    Martha Rosenberg: 7 Diseases Big Pharma Hopes You Get in 2012 Martha Rosenberg 2011

  • Not everyone agreed about multidrug combinations commonly called polypharmacy either.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed 2010

  • Not everyone agreed about multidrug combinations commonly called polypharmacy either.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed 2010

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