Introduction:

An ever increasing number of elderly live with multiple chronic diseases and take several drugs concomitantly. The elderly are subjected to a variety of pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic alterations that change the responsiveness of drugs, which makes them potentially inappropriate to use in older people. The aim of this study is to quantitatively assess the prescription pattern of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) in different inward clinical services of University Hospital Center of Cova da Beira, Covilhã, Portugal.

Methods:

We searched the hospital's computerized system database for every patient admitted in previously selected clinical services, from January 1st to June 30th 2018. Patients less than 65 years old were excluded. Data regarding the patients' hospital ID number, their age, prescribed drugs during admission, prescribed dose, frequency, medications' start date and their respective end date were anonymously collected. The patients' medications prescribed during the admission period were assessed, and the PIMs were identified according to Beers Criteria 2015.

Results:

The benzodiazepines were the most frequently prescribed potentially inappropriate therapeutic drug class in the four clinical services studied, accounting for 29.97% in Medicine 2, 39.96% in Cardiology, 30.21% in Medicine 1 and 41.10% in Pneumology of the total of prescribed PIMs. The antipsychotics were the next most prescribed potentially inappropriate therapeutic drug classes. Intestinal motility modifiers, namely metoclopramide, also had a significant expression.

Conclusions:

Reconciliation tools such as the Beers Criteria are useful to identify inappropriate prescribing during the pharmaceutical validation of prescription. Further studies will provide more insight into the impact of the pharmacist's intervention.

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