More than one in every five prescriptions written for seniors is inappropriate and could raise the risk of negative reactions, based on a new analysis of studies published in the Public Library of Science journal PLOS One.
The researchers, led by Dedan Opondo of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, conducted a systematic review of 19 English-language studies of medication use in the elderly since 1950 and found that the median rate of inappropriate prescriptions was 20.5 percent.
Some of the medications with the highest rates of inappropriate use were the antihistamine diphenhydramine, the antidepressant amitriptyline, and the pain reliever propoxyphene.
SPECIAL: Wheat Belly: #1 Diet and Health Book in America Changing Lives - ONLY $4.95! Save $21The investigators noted inappropriate medication prescription is a common cause of preventable negative side effects and reactions among seniors in primary care and clinical settings.
"Approximately one in five prescriptions to elderly persons in primary care is inappropropriate despite the attention that has been directed to quality of prescription," the researchers concluded. "These medications are good candidates for being targeted for improvement e.g. by computerized clinical decision support."