Abstract

MEASURING INAPPROPRIATE PRESCRIPTIONS IN GERIATRIC POPULATION: OVERVIEW OF VARIOUS SCREENING TOOLS

In this era of growing research, a plethora of effective therapeutic agents has been made available to treat chronic disorders that often accompany advancing age. However, medications often act as a “double edge sword”. Instead of medications being a cure, frequently they cause problems. Thus, managing the medications in elderly patients is truly a challenge for all health professionals. The use of a medication is generally considered appropriate if the expected benefits of the medication outweigh the potential risks. Because older adults are more sensitive to any adverse effects of medications, various lists of medications have been created for guiding clinicians to avoid certain drugs in elderly people. Various screening tools based on explicit (criterion-based) or implicit (judgment-based) prescribing indicators have been devised to detect inappropriate prescriptions of such drugs. The purpose of this evidence-based guideline or screening tool is to improve medication management practices for older adults. In this review we have discussed various methods of finding out inappropriate prescriptions in the elderly which can be referred by health care providers of this population. Therefore, regular application of such inappropriate prescription screening tools should hypothetically reduce the prevalence of adverse drug events, their related morbidity and health care cost.

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