ABSTRACT
A 74-year-old woman was reviewed routinely by her general practitioner. She had been well recently but her daughter, who is the patient’s main carer, had been struggling to administer her daily medications. The patient had advanced Alzheimer’s dementia and was often reluctant to take oral medications. Her daughter wondered if all of the medications were necessary. The patient’s past medical history included the aforementioned Alzheimer’s dementia, frequent falls (one of which resulted in a previous fracture of the left neck of femur), Parkinson’s disease, hypercholesterolaemia, hypertension and type-2 diabetes mellitus. Her regular medications were: co-careldopa 50/200 mg PO TDS, aspirin 75 mg PO OD, atorvastatin 20 mg PO ON, omeprazole 20 mg PO OD, doxazosin 4 mg PO BD, ramipril 5 mg PO OD and metformin 1 g PO BD.
