UMEM Educational Pearls

Title: A medicine can beget another medicine. Should it?

Category: Geriatrics

Keywords: Prescribing cascade (PubMed Search)

Posted: 4/28/2026 by Robert Flint, MD (Updated: 4/30/2026)
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The article outlines how instead of looking at medications as the cause of symptoms, we often add more medications to treat the medication induced symptoms.  Here is an example of how we get to polypharmacy in older patients  

References

Bry?a A, Woro? J, Miedziaszczyk M, Lorkowska-Zawicka B, Bujak-Gi?ycka B, Orzechowski D, Po?etek P, Pa?ys W. Prescribing Cascade as a Therapeutic Error: A Danger for Geriatric Patients with Multimorbidity. Geriatrics. 2026; 11(2):37. https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics11020037