Psychotrophic Medication Prescriptions and Polypharmacy in Geriatric Patients Followed up in a Home-based Health Care Setting

IntroductionBy 2050, one out of every six people in the world will be 65 years or older. Chronic diseases and associated multiple drug use are common in elderly. The use of five or more drugs is called polypharmacy and it’s reported between 40-90% in the elderly. The Beers Criteria is the American G...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European psychiatry 2024-08, Vol.67 (S1), p.S232-S232
Main Authors: S Tanyeri Kayahan, Kayahan, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chronic illnesses
Dementia
Polypharmacy
Prescription drugs
Psychotropic drugs
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Summary:IntroductionBy 2050, one out of every six people in the world will be 65 years or older. Chronic diseases and associated multiple drug use are common in elderly. The use of five or more drugs is called polypharmacy and it’s reported between 40-90% in the elderly. The Beers Criteria is the American Geriatrics Association’s guide to current recommendations regarding the safety of pharmacotherapy in older age. Being a part of community-based health services in Türkiye since 2005, “Home-based Health Care Services” is a program in which patients, who are mostly elderly and have difficulty in accessing health institutions, access medical services at their homes.ObjectivesIn our study, it was aimed to examine the chronic disease diagnoses and prescriptions of patients aged 65 and over, registered in a home-based health care unit, in terms of psychotropic drugs and polypharmacy, and to evaluate the compliance of their psychiatric prescriptions with the Beers Criteria.MethodsSociodemographic, psychiatric diagnosis and treatment prescription and home-based health service-specific data were collected from the electronic files of home-based health care unit patients. Chronic diseases were scored according to the Modified Charlson Comorbidity Index (mCCI). The last 6-month prescriptions obtained from the electronic patient files were scanned and included in the analysis. In statistical analysis using SPSS Version 25, a p-value of significance
ISSN:0924-9338
1778-3585
DOI:10.1192/j.eurpsy.2024.494