A Study on Polypharmacy in the Elderly Psychiatric Outpatients with Persistent Treatments for 3 years
Journal of Korean Geriatric Psychiatry
;
: 50-57, 2010.
Article
in Korean
| WPRIM
| ID: wpr-139196
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
The objective of this study was to investigate the prescription trends for the elderly psychiatric outpatients at a university hospital.METHODS:
We performed a retrospective study based on medical records. Data on 146 elderly patients (65 years and older) diagnosed with psychiatric disorders according to ICD-10 from January 2005 to March 2008 were collected. Analyses were performed regarding demographic characteristics, prevalence of polypharmacy, and the doses and types of drugs prescribed.RESULTS:
In 146 subjects, the mean age was 76.14+/-5.21. More than five types of drugs were prescribed to 49.5% of the patients in 2008. The percentage of stable users (those without changes in the category of polypharmacy for 3 years) was 69.8%. Each patient received an average of 4.20+/-1.50 kinds of drugs in 2005 and 4.02+/-1.77 in 2008. The average dose of drugs was 6.1+/-3.50 in 2005 and 6.49+/-4.09 in 2008, and the difference was not statistically significant. The average number of types of psychiatric drugs prescribed to the patients decreased from 2.37+/-0.86 in 2005 to 2.17+/-0.87 in 2008 (p<0.05).CONCLUSION:
Although practice of polypharmacy showed a slow increase over the 3 years from 2005 to 2008, almost half of the elderly patients we studied received multiple drugs. Since polypharmacy can increase drug-drug interactions and adverse effects in the elderly, appropriate drug monitoring and careful prescription are necessary.
Full text:
Available
Index:
WPRIM (Western Pacific)
Main subject:
Outpatients
/
Medical Records
/
International Classification of Diseases
/
Prevalence
/
Retrospective Studies
/
Drug Monitoring
/
Polypharmacy
/
Prescriptions
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prevalence study
Limits:
Aged
/
Humans
Language:
Korean
Journal:
Journal of Korean Geriatric Psychiatry
Year:
2010
Type:
Article
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