Tips to prevent adverse drug events in older adults

Community Practitioner, Feb, 2008 by June Thompson

About one in three older persons taking at least five medications will experience an adverse drug event each year, and about two-thirds of these will require medical attention, according to clinicians. Approximately 95% of these reactions are predictable, and about 28% are preventable, say the researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston. They suggest that interventions effective in reducing inappropriate prescriptions include avoiding the misuse, overuse and underuse of medications, polypharmacy, overdosing, underprescribing and nonadherence.

However, despite concerns about overprescribing, many conditions remain underdiagnosed or undertreated, write the authors. Ascribing all symptoms to degenerative disease or old age will potentially miss treatable conditions, including heart disease, depression, osteoporosis and pain.