10 questions worth asking about your parent’s medicines
A good place to start: what each medicine is for, which ones are essential, whether any interact, whether doses still suit their age and kidneys, which cause drowsiness or falls risk, whether anything is treating another medicine’s side effect, when the list was last reviewed as a whole, and what could be simplified.
You don’t need medical training to ask good questions about your parent’s medicines — you need the right questions and the confidence to ask them. A good GP or pharmacist welcomes these; none of them imply criticism of anyone’s care so far. Treat this list as a starting point to adapt, not a script to read verbatim.
Some of these questions are best asked at a regular GP appointment. Others fit naturally into a structured medication review, where there’s time set aside specifically to go through the whole list rather than squeezing it into the last few minutes of an appointment booked for something else. Either way, writing a few of these down before you go in tends to work better than trying to remember them on the day.
The ten questions
1. What is each medicine actually for?
A surprising number of long-term medicine lists include something nobody in the family can currently explain. Asking “what is this one for?” for each item, one at a time, is a simple way to find the gaps.
2. Which of these are essential, and which are worth asking about?
Not every medicine carries equal weight. Some are treating an active, serious condition; others may have been added for something minor or short-term that’s since resolved. Their doctor is the one who decides what can change, but asking the question is what starts that conversation.
3. Do any of these interact with each other?
Medicines prescribed separately, by different doctors, can still affect each other when taken together. A pharmacist reviewing the complete list, rather than one prescription at a time, is specifically positioned to check for this — including interactions with over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and supplements, which families sometimes don’t think to mention because they weren’t prescribed.
4. Are the doses still right for their age and kidneys?
A dose that suited your parent at 60 doesn’t automatically still suit them at 80. As kidney function changes with age, the way the body processes some medicines changes too, which is exactly the kind of detail a structured review is built to reassess.
5. Which of these can cause drowsiness or increase falls risk?
Several common medicine types, including some for sleep, pain and blood pressure, can affect balance or alertness. Knowing which ones apply to your parent specifically helps everyone watch for the right thing, rather than treating every stumble as unexplained.
6. Is anything here treating a side effect of something else?
Sometimes a newer medicine was added to manage a symptom that was actually caused by an older one. Asking directly whether that’s the case for any item on the list is one of the more revealing questions a family can ask.
7. When was the whole list last reviewed together?
Most people can tell you when they last saw a doctor. Fewer can say when someone last looked at every medicine at once, rather than one repeat script at a time. If the answer is “I’m not sure” or “years ago,” that’s useful information in itself.
8. Could anything here be simplified?
Sometimes two medicines can be combined into one, or a timing change could make a routine easier to follow correctly. This isn’t about taking fewer medicines for its own sake — it’s about asking whether the current arrangement is still the simplest one that works.
9. What should we watch for after any change?
If a dose changes or a medicine is stopped or started, it helps to know in plain language what a normal adjustment period looks like, and what would be worth calling about. Asking this before a change happens is easier than trying to work it out afterwards.
10. Who do we call if something seems wrong?
Having a clear answer to this before you need it — their GP, their regular pharmacy, or another contact — means nobody is searching for a phone number while worried. It’s a small, practical question, and one of the most useful. Write the answer down somewhere the whole family can find it, not just in one person’s memory.
You don’t need to ask all ten at once, or work through them alone. A Home Medicines Review is built to go through exactly this kind of list, with your parent’s whole medicine cabinet on the table and a report going back to their GP afterwards.
Where these questions fit into a review
A Home Medicines Review covers this ground directly: a pharmacist visits your parent at home, checks the full list against what they’re actually taking, and reports findings back to their GP for a decision.1 If you’d like to bring this list into a real conversation, our guide to organising a medication review for your parent covers exactly how to raise it with their GP. And if it’s the growing size of the list itself that prompted these questions, our article on signs your parent may be on too many medicines is a useful next read.
Whatever the answers turn out to be, the point of asking isn’t to reach a conclusion yourselves. It’s to make sure your parent’s GP has every piece of information needed to make that call properly — which is, in the end, what a structured review exists to support.2
Not sure what to do next?
Tell me what’s going on with your family member’s medicines — I’ll call you back, usually the same day, and we’ll work out the next step together. No cost, no obligation.
References
- healthdirect, Home medicines review: healthdirect.gov.au
- Pharmacy Programs Administrator, Home Medicines Review: ppaonline.com.au
- Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, Information about polypharmacy — Easy read: safetyandquality.gov.au