Researchers say a greater awareness is needed about the risks of certain prescribed drugs in elderly patients . As people age, they often have multiple chronic conditions and take several drugs concurrently many drugs which have increased risks for people as they age.
Researchers conducted a study to look at medication prescriptions in the elderly population. They looked at 765 prescriptions , more than 20 percent of the people filled a prescription for one or more drugs of concern. 16 percent made claims for two risky drugs and 4 percent filled prescriptions for three or more risky drugs.Although criteria for drugs to avoid in the elderly have been around for a long time, the amount of potentially inappropriate prescribing for older patients remains really high,say researchers . Researchers say half of the risky prescriptions were for anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drugs that can have severe adverse effects in older people.
Thus researchers point out that pharmaceutical databases could be an important tool to monitor the use of risky drugs in the elderly population.
