do you think some doctors over medicate the elderly?

No disrespect and I truly hope you won't take this the wrong way, but it sounds like your mom is a real pain in the "A"--I say this because of what I went through with my own mom...and like you I was her caregiver--My mom was a contradiction..in the one sense she was also a hypochondriac..always complaining about some malady--yet unlike most hypochondriacs she wasn't racing to the doc every five minutes..actually the opposite...she'd complain about stupid little things but when she would go to the doc never opened her mouth to say what was exactly wrong--Ah,, my mom..she was complicated...first I knew she was suffering from severe depression..and I knew she needed help...so she did go to a therapist..but she never signed a proxy that would have allowed me any intervention..she didn't sign one until the last few months of her life..then it was like too little too late...I'm not a great advocate of medication but in this case I think she could have benefited from an anti=depressant--the kicker was, was when I finally was allowed to go with her to her therapist, and told him just how bad she was, he said "Why you mother doesn't look too depressed to me." She is sitting next to me with a big smile on her face...oh, yeah, sure he's giving his psycho-analytical evaluation she's not depressed cause she's smiling.. then if my mom had opened up her mouth to tell a doc how her throat felt maybe they could have discovered her tumor in her esophagus a lot sooner and may not have even been cancerous yet...all she would ever say..even to me,that she had a lot of congestion...and for a long time she was doing a bulimic thing..oh, joy I thought she was suffering from another mental disorder...I would describe her behavior to my friends and they'd ask me, oh, is she bi-polar? Have dementia? Who knows --she no doubt had a multitude of problems--But then she'd complain about her foot problems..and her feet were really bizarre looking...hammer toes..everything..she's complain about her eyesight..etc. etc..but never do anything about it...and of course she never let on the severity of her problems..but then she'd complain about silly things...like one time I was passing her by where she sat on the couch..she asked if I could feel her chest..so I did...she asked me"Does your heart beat like that?" I felt a good strong healthy heartbeat...So I said she should be lucky to feel her heart beating...if she didn't THEN I think you be in trouble mom...LOL As far as your question goes..it's a flip of the coin...in my mother's case she was probably under-medicated and perhaps could have benefited from various medications...of course there is the other extreme as in your mom's case...but in a way...you can't blame the doctors--they can only go by the complaints your mom is giving to them...so they are in effect taking "precautions" by giving her medications to save their hides...in other words if they weren't giving medications they would feel that they could be sued for not giving meds for various complaints..and I'm sure you know all to well about the Hippa Privacy Laws and everything..another way for the docs to save face in medical decisions. I know how you must be feeling...you're your mom's caregiver..oh, boy do I ever understand that...my mom refused any outside help and just wanted me to take care of her, and did practically round the clock...but like most caregivers..who takes care of us? Especially if you have a finicky mom like I had...LOL Sorry for such a long post--a bit of ranting here

Last week I took my daughter-in-law to the hospital for same day surgery. When in the waiting room I became engaged in conversation with a gentleman whose father was in a nursing home in Arizona. He had flown in to visit his father and decided to drop in unannounced to visit him. He found his father sitting on the bed in a lethargic state. They had medicated him to keep him that way. He stated that needless to say it took him no time to remove him from that nursing home and find him another residence.

I do think that some doctors tend to overmedicate not just the elderly but all their patients in some cases. I don't know why. I work in healthcare and the doctors I work with are pretty good, but there's a few that tend to do this.

Yes I do think that Doctors do that and for two reasons one being I am sure they are getting money from the prescriptions they write from the pharmaceutical companies and the second reason is because the elderly feel they will become sick in there old age there for they will hand there Doctor the money and not think twice and I think some doctors take advantage of that

i think doctors knows what's best for their patients, and if ever there are medications or additional medications prescribed for your mom, it is best to ask questions from the doctor as to why he has prescribed the medicine, ask for side effects and always monitor your mom if these side effects makes her comfortable or uncomfortable then it would be proper to report the same to her physician...

Dear it so natural of having so many medications since lupus was very dangerous disease esp ur mom has so many complications ,it is life threathning disorder . lupus could be accompanied by any disorder. as what u said that she has having hypertension,sleep apnea fibromalgia.should be reaction sometimes from over medication ,thats why she got hypertension or even hypochondriac .but still need to intake what doctors prescribe since that reactions was only natural due of much having complications as well accompanied by other disease. but she must have to intake medications bcoz dear the condition of ur mom is not qute okay. medication could help and doctors knows about it.Dont worry much if ur mom was under care of the doctor bcoz they knew what would be the best for your mom .sorry to say that the illness of your mom was very difficult to cure but God is always there .So dont lose hope and maybe there is miracle could be happened if you dnt lost of faith belive you mom will heal,That God gave him chance to live long.all you have to do is to support ,and help her to fight the disease.Pray more.PRAYERS is very powerful,God will always listen to u.