polypharmacyn.
/ˌpɒlɪˈfɑːməsi/, U.S. /ˌpɑliˈfɑrməsi/ Medicine.
The use of multiple drugs or medicines for several concurrent disorders (now esp. by elderly patients), often with the suggestion of indiscriminate, unscientific, or excessive prescription. Cf. polydrug adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > treatment by medicine or drug > [noun] > treatment using many drugs
polypharmacy1762
combination therapy1957
1762 Gentleman's Mag. May 214/2 Polypharmacy was never carried to a greater excess.
1852 W. Hamilton Discuss. Philos. & Lit. 253 The murderous polypharmacy of the Solidists.
1890 Proc. Royal Soc. 48 p. xi Words of contempt for polypharmacy and unverified therapeutical dogmas.
1906 H. Sainsbury Principia Therapeutica vi. 109 The purist..whilst limiting himself scrupulously to the use of one drug at a time, will seldom hesitate to prescribe the crude drugs,—opium, digitalis, bark, [etc.]..entirely oblivious of the fact that in so doing he is guilty of the most flagrant polypharmacy.
1953 J. L. Simonsen Plant Products & Utilisation (Univ. Nottingham: Sir Jesse Boot Found. Lect.) 4 There is less polypharmacy now than formerly, but I am satisfied that there is less good prescribing now than in my student days.
1990 Age & Ageing 19 353/1 Multiple pathologies lead to polypharmacy which, in turn, increases the risk of adverse drug reactions.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1762