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Side effects related to potentially inappropriate medications in elderly psychiatric patients under everyday pharmacotherapy

  • Pharmacodynamics
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) is suggested to give rise to adverse drug events. To study this suggestion for elderly psychiatric patients, an observational analysis related prescription of PRISCUS PIMs and drug-induced side effects in old aged (≥65 years) psychiatric inpatients and outpatients under conditions of everyday pharmacotherapy.

Methods

Request forms from a therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) survey and medical files were screened for medication to identify PIMs of the PRISCUS list and assessed using the Udvalg for Kliniske Undersøgelser (UKU) side effect rating scale.

Results

From 914 TDM request forms, data were available for 168 patients (64.3 % female). Patients (mean ± SD age 73.0 ± 5.5 years) received by mean 6.4 ± 3.9 drugs per day. More than half of them (53.0 %, n = 89) had at least one PIM, inpatients 0.9 ± 0.8 and outpatients 0.5 ± 0.7. Predominant PIMs were hypnotic drugs (69 %) in inpatients and antipsychotic drugs (35.6 %) in outpatients. The number of PIMs correlated with the total number of drugs administered per day (Spearman correlation coefficient 0.225, p < 0.01, CI 95 %). Side effects were documented for 106 patients (63 %). Severity of side effects did not correlate significantly (p > 0.05) with number of PIMs. However, only 6 of 77 patients who took no PRISCUS PIMs but 2 of 3 patients who took 3 PRISCUS PIMs exhibited severe side effects.

Conclusions

Though the prevalence for PIMs and side effects was high in old aged psychiatric inpatients and outpatients, PIMs could not be identified as major determinants of overall unwanted side effects. Nevertheless, prescription of PIMs should be minimized, especially of hypnotic drugs, to improve safety.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany

    Gudrun Hefner, Viktoria Stieffenhofer & Christoph Hiemke

  2. Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medical Center, Langenbeckstrasse 1, 55131, Mainz, Germany

    Gudrun Hefner & Christoph Hiemke

  3. SCIVIAS Psychiatric Hospital, Bad Soden, Germany

    Susanne Gabriel & Joachim Röschke

  4. Psychiatric Outpatient Care Unit Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, Mainz, Germany

    Gerlind Palmer & Kay-Maria Müller

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  1. Gudrun Hefner
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Correspondence to Gudrun Hefner.

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Hefner, G., Stieffenhofer, V., Gabriel, S. et al. Side effects related to potentially inappropriate medications in elderly psychiatric patients under everyday pharmacotherapy. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 71, 165–172 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-014-1796-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-014-1796-5

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