Pseudopolypharmacy

Source of the reports of "extra" medications:

(1) pharmacy records

(2) patient

(3) family

(4) physician(s), especially if the patient sees several

(5) hospital or clinic records

Reasons for misinformation in the medical or pharmacy records:

(1) failure to cancel or to modify a medication record

(2) wrong information (error in the medication record)

(2a) accidental error

(2b) intentional error (which may be associated with drug diversion)

(3) redundancy, with one drug replacing another

Reasons for misinformation from the patient or informant:

(4) misunderstanding about what is being asked

(5) episodic use (sometimes takes a medication but is not doing so now)

(6) nonadherence by the patient (the patient should be taking a drug but isn’t)