Elderly drug burden index developed
A drug burden index for use in older people has been developed by US researchers and published in Archives of Internal Medicine (2007;167:781–7).
The researchers used existing studies and pharmacological principles
to devise a formula to examine the association between medicine use in
the elderly, and physical and cognitive performance. When evaluating
the index in a community population, they found that exposure to medicines
with anticholinergic or sedating effects was linked to impaired function,
but that taking several different drugs per se was not. They suggest
that validation of the index in other elderly populations could lead
to it being used in evidence-based prescribing.
|
Hospital
Pharmacist