scholarly journals Inappropriate Prescribing to Elderly Patients in an Internal Medicine Ward

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana Urzal ◽  
Ana Bárbara Pedro ◽  
Inês Ferraz De Oliveira ◽  
Inês Romero ◽  
Miguel Achega ◽  
...  

Introduction: Polypharmacy is often observed in elderly patients and is associated with an increased risk of adverse drug reactions, side effects and interactions. Clinicians should be alert to inappropriate drug prescribing and reduce polypharmacy. Material and Methods: Observational, longitudinal, retrospective and descriptive study in an internal medicine ward in a Portuguese hospital. Polypharmacy was defined as the use of five or more different medicines. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of polypharmacy and inappropriate prescribing at admission and discharge in an internal medicine ward, according to deprescribing.org guidelines/algorithms. A total of 838 consecutive patients were admitted between January and July 2017. All patients were aged under 65 years old, and those who died before discharge were excluded. Patients’ medications were reviewed from a medical database at hospital admission and discharge. We examined whether patients were taking anticoagulants, proton pump inhibitors, benzodiazepines, antipsychotics and/or antihyperglycemic medication.Results: A total of 483 patients were included, mean age was 79.2 ± 8.0 years, and 42% of patients were male. Median number of medications at admission and discharge was six. Polypharmacy was present in more than 70% of admitted patients. Proton pump inhibitors were the most common inappropriate prescription at discharge (17.2%). Discussion: This study demonstrated a low use of inappropriate medicine (11.2% - 17.2%) in older people discharged from hospital, when compared to other studies. Conclusion: Our study shows that polypharmacy is present in more than 70% of elderly admitted patients. Nevertheless, the drug inappropriateness rate was not significantly affected by polypharmacy at both admission and discharge, being overall lower than published data.

2020 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cátia Pereira ◽  
Ana Guiomar ◽  
Alexandra Cunha ◽  
Catarina Alves Cunha ◽  
José Pedro Barbosa ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Mariana Alves ◽  
Marco Ribeiro Narciso ◽  
Teresa Fonseca ◽  
João Gorjão Clara

N/a.


2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 639-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Linder ◽  
Cynthia Tamboue ◽  
Jennifer N. Clements

Objective: To review primary literature of gastric acid suppressive agents and vitamin B12 deficiency. Data Synthesis: From the published articles, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are associated with a higher risk of inducing vitamin B12 deficiency than histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs). Literature suggests that there is an increased risk of developing vitamin B12 deficiency in patients who are exposed to extended durations of therapy with PPIs. There are, however, some conflicting data in elderly patients suggesting that the PPI use for more than 3 years does not increase the risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. No evidence was found to support the extended use of H2RA monotherapy causing vitamin B12 deficiency. The inconsistency of results reported could be due to the differing patient populations studied, such as Zollinger-Ellison syndrome (ZES) and elderly patients. Overall, the lack of consistent evidence shows the need for more research in this area. Conclusion: To investigate the clinical significance of vitamin B12 deficiency caused by acid suppression with PPIs and H2RAs, longer prospective studies are needed. These studies should focus on patient-centered outcomes to accurately determine the extended usage of PPI and H2RA and the true effects on vitamin B12 deficiency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanbing He ◽  
Xiaorong Shu ◽  
Enyi Zhu ◽  
Bingqing Deng ◽  
Yongqing Lin ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are frequently prescribed to patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) under antiplatelet therapy to prevent gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding. However, its clinical impact is still under debate, especially in Asian population. This study was undertaken to explore the effects of concurrent use of clopidogrel and PPIs on the clinical outcomes in Chinese patients with CHD in secondary prevention. Methods A single-center retrospective study was conducted in 638 patients with CHD on consecutive clopidogrel therapy for at least 1 year. After 18-month follow-up, adverse clinical events were collected. Cox regression was used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the effect of PPI use on the outcomes. A total of 638 patients were recruited from 2014 to 2015 in this study, among whom 201 were sustained PPI users, 188 were intermittent PPI users and the remaining 249 were non-PPI users. Results Compared with sustained PPI users, intermittent use of PPIs was associated with a lower risk of stroke, major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and net adverse clinical event (NACE) (stroke: adjusted HR: 0.109, 95% CI 0.014–0.878, p = 0.037; MACE: adjusted HR: 0.293, 95% CI 0.119–0.722; p = 0.008; NACE: adjusted HR: 0.357, 95% CI 0.162–0.786, p = 0.011). Subgroup analysis further revealed the benefit of intermittent PPI use was significant in male CHD patients over 60 years old, with hypertension or chronic kidney disease, and undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention during hospitalization. Conclusion The current findings suggest that the intermittent concurrent use of PPIs and clopidogrel is not associated with an increased risk of 18-month adverse clinical outcomes, and intermittent use of PPIs is associated with a lower rate of MACE and NACE.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. e041543
Author(s):  
Keiko Ikuta ◽  
Shunsaku Nakagawa ◽  
Kenji Momo ◽  
Atsushi Yonezawa ◽  
Kotaro Itohara ◽  
...  

ObjectivesThis study aimed to assess whether the combined use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or antibiotics (penicillins, macrolides, cephalosporins or fluoroquinolones) was associated with an increased risk of acute kidney injury (AKI).DesignA nested case–control study.SettingA health insurance claims database constructed by the Japan Medical Data Center.ParticipantsPatients were eligible if they were prescribed a PPI, NSAID and antibiotic at least once between January 2005 and June 2017. The patients who were new PPI users and did not have any history of renal diseases before cohort entry were included (n=219 082). The mean age was 45 and 44% were women.InterventionsCurrent use of PPIs, NSAIDs, or antibiotics.Primary outcome measuresAcute kidney injury.ResultsDuring a mean follow-up of 2.4 (SD, 1.7) years, 317 cases of AKI were identified (incidence rate of 6.1/10 000 person-years). The current use of PPIs was associated with a higher risk of AKI compared with past PPI use (unadjusted OR, 4.09; 95% CI, 3.09 to 5.44). The unadjusted ORs of AKI for the current use of PPIs with NSAIDs, cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones, compared with the current use of PPIs alone, were 3.92 (95% CI, 2.40 to 6.52), 2.57 (1.43 to 4.62) and 3.08 (1.50 to 6.38), respectively. The effects of concurrent use of PPIs with NSAIDs, cephalosporins or fluoroquinolones remain significant in the adjusted model. The analyses on absolute risk of AKI confirmed the results from the nested case–control study.ConclusionsConcomitant use of NSAIDs with PPIs significantly increased the risk for AKI. Moreover, the results suggested that concomitant use of cephalosporins or fluoroquinolones with PPIs was associated with increased risk of incident AKI.


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