European Journal of Clinical Pharmacy

Volume 20 - Issue 3, May-June 2018

ORIGINAL

ANTICHOLINERGIC DRUGS PRESCRIPTION: PREVALENCE

HEREDIA BENITO MIRIAM, VALENZUELA GÁMEZ JUAN CARLOS, NIETO SANDOVAL MARTÍN DE LA SIERRA PATRICIA, GÓMEZ LLUCH TERESA, NOTARIO DONGIL CLARA

Numerous studies have reported an association between anticholinergic medication use and cognitive impairment in the elderly. This study examines the prevalence of anticholinergic burden along with quality of prescription in a sample of elderly patients. For this retrospective, cross-sectional, descriptive and observational study, we enrolled consecutive patients aged over 65 years admitted to trauma ward with at least the active prescriptions for four regularly scheduled non-topical medication from 1st January 2017 to 30th June 2017. Data were retrieved from the clinical records and by a clinical structured interview with the patient or caregiver. To
quantify anticholinergic burden we used «The Drug Burden Index». A total of 60 patients participated in this study. Presented any AR 41 patients (68.3%). The AR was high in 19 of the 41 patients (46.34%), intermediate in 19 (46.3%) and low in 3 (7.32%) patients. The medium AR was 0.88 (0-2.84). It was prescribed one anticholinergic drug for 24 patients and for 20 patients more than one. Could be potentially avoided 67 anticholinergic drugs (90.54%). The prevalence of AR in this sample of patients was important. Nearly half of
the patients received more than one anticholinergic drug. Even when the risk of each drug is low, the combination of anticholinergic drugs increases the risk. This risk could be preventable in a great percentage of patients. It would be interesting to study the prevalence in other wards, health services and group of patients and in that way select which patients could bene􀂿t from a pharmaceutic intervention to try to minimize
the risk.

ANTICHOLINERGIC DRUGS – ANTICHOLINERGIC LOAD – ELDERLY

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