Too many DRUGS!

I saw a patient recently for a dental extraction, and in looking at the record, I was appalled to see a list of medications totalling 17! Yes, seventeen.  I am often reminded of some sage advice from a wise pharmacist, who told me that in order for the doctor to be certain to have a firm understanding of the various interactions between drugs, he or she should not have a patient on more than SIX drugs at a time.  No one can possibly predict the outcome of more than 6, let alone 17, different pharmaceuticals. Obviously, no studies could be done to determine what any given combination of 17 drugs would be. So please, watch out for yourselves and for perhaps your older friends and relatives.  If they are on more than 6 drugs, the only thing I can predict is that they are probably sick, perhaps because of the multiple unknown effects of all those drugs. You may want to recommend the physician try to reduce the numbers of prescriptions, by removing what they feel to be the least needed or least effective of the drugs.  And by the way, through no fault of the physician, the patient I saw also smokes a pack of cigarettes a day. That adds another drug, nicotine, to the 17, not to mention the host of other poisons in cigarette smoke.  Take care of yourselves, and I welcome comments, especially from my physician and pharmacist friends, and those who have seen the results of over-prescribing.