Abstract
Polypharmacy is a major concern in geriatrics and often categorized as a geriatric syndrome. Polypharmacy is frequently seen in the elderly mainly due to the increased prevalence of chronic diseases and impaired health conditions, and thus multimorbidity. Obviously, this is not an exclusively age-related problem but may also be seen in younger adults or even children and adolescents if multimorbidity is present.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Balducci L, Extermann M (2000) Management of cancer in the older person: a practical approach. Oncologist 5:224–237
Balducci L, Colloca G, Cesari M, Gambassi G (2010) Assessment and treatment of elderly patients with cancer. Surg Oncol 19:117–123
Beers MH (1997) Explicit criteria for determining potentially inappropriate medication use by the elderly. An update. Arch Intern Med 157:1531–1536
Boyd CM, Darer J, Boult C, Fried LP, Boult L, Wu AW (2005) Clinical practice guidelines and quality of care for older patients with multiple comorbid diseases: implications for pay for performance. JAMA 294:716–724
Bushardt RL, Massey EB, Simpson TW, Ariail JC, Simpson KN (2008) Polypharmacy: misleading, but manageable. Clin Interv Aging 3:383–389
Chutka DS, Takahashi PY, Hoel RW (2004) Inappropriate medications for elderly patients. Mayo Clin Proc 79:122–139
Fick DM, Waller JL, Maclean JR et al (2001) Potentially inappropriate medication use in a managed care population: association with higher costs and utilization. J Manag Care Pharm 7:407–413
Fick DM, Cooper JW, Wade WE, Waller JL, Maclean JR, Beers MH (2003) Updating the Beers criteria for potentially inappropriate medication use in older adults: results of a U.S. consensus panel of experts. Arch Intern Med 163:2716–2724
Flockhart DA (2007) Drug interactions: cytochrome P450 drug interaction table. Indiana University School of Medicine. http://medicine.iupui.edu/clinpharm/ddis/table.aspx. Accessed 7 Oct 2011
Gallagher P, Ryan C, Byrne S, Kennedy J, O’Mahony D (2008) STOPP (Screening Tool of Older Persons’ Prescriptions) and START (Screening Tool to Alert Doctors to Right Treatment): consensus validation. Int J Clin Pharmacol Ther 46:72–83
Garfinkel D, Zur-Gil S, Ben-Israel J (2007) The war against polypharmacy: a new cost-effective geriatric-palliative approach for improving drug therapy in disabled elderly people. Isr Med Assoc J 9:430–434
Gillick MR (2006) The denial of aging. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Glaeske G, Hoffmann F (2009) Der Wettbewerb der Leitlinien bei älteren Menschen—Multimorbidität und Polypharmazie als Problem. Neuro Geriatrie 6:115–119, in German
Gurwitz JH (2004) Polypharmacy. A new paradigm for quality drug therapy in the elderly? Arch Intern Med 164:1957–1959
Hanlon JT, Fillenbaum GG, Kuchibhatla M et al (2002) Impact of inappropriate drug use on mortality and functional status in representative community dwelling elders. Med Care 40:166–176
Holt S, Schmiedl S, Thürmann PA (2010) Potentially inappropriate medications in the elderly: the PRISCUS list. Dtsch Arztebl Int 107:543–551
Laroche ML, Charmes JP, Merle L (2007) Potentially inappropriate medications in the elderly: a French consensus panel list. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 63:725–731
Maio V, Del Canale S, Abouzaid S, Investigators GAP (2010) Using explicit criteria to evaluate the quality of prescribing in elderly Italian outpatients: a cohort study. J Clin Pharm Ther 35:219–229
National Center for Health Statistics (1996) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/nh3data.htm. Accessed 11 Jan 2010
Palareti G, Legnani C (1996) Warfarin withdrawal—pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic considerations. Clin Pharmacokinet 30:300–313
Podrazik PM, Schwartz JB (1999) Cardiovascular pharmacology of aging. Cardiol Clin 17:17–34
Rancourt C, Moisan J, Baillargeon L, Verreault R, Laurin D, Grégoire JP (2004) Potentially inappropriate prescriptions for older patients in long-term care. BMC Geriatr 4:9
Rochon PA, Gurwitz JH (1997) Optimising drug treatment for elderly people: the prescribing cascade. BMJ 315:1096–1099
Rognstad S, Brekke M, Fetveit A, Spigset O, Wyller TB, Straand J (2009) The Norwegian General Practice (NORGEP) criteria for assessing potentially inappropriate prescriptions to elderly patients. A modified Delphi study. Scand J Prim Health Care 27:153–159
Rollason V, Vogt N (2003) Reduction of polypharmacy in the elderly. Drugs Aging 20:817–832
Semla TP, Beizer JL, Higbee MD (2011) Geriatric dosage handbook. LexiComp, Hudson
Steinhagen-Thiessen E, Borchelt M (2001) Morbidity, medication, and functional limitations in very old age. In: Baltes PB (ed) The Berlin aging study, aging from 70 to 100. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Stuck A, Kharicha K, Dapp U et al (2007) Development, feasibility and performance of a health risk appraisal questionnaire for older persons. BMC Med Res Methodol 7:1
Wedding U, Honecker F, Bokemeyer C, Pientka L, Höffken K (2007) Tolerance to chemotherapy in elderly patients with cancer. Cancer Control 14:44–56
Wehling M (2011) Guideline-driven polypharmacy in elderly, multimorbid patients is basically flawed: there are almost no guidelines for these patients. J Am Geriatr Soc 59:376–377
Winit-Watjana W, Sakulrat P, Kespichayawattana J (2007) Criteria for high-risk medication use in Thai older patients. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 47:35–51
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Wien
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Burkhardt, H. (2013). Polypharmacy. In: Wehling, M. (eds) Drug Therapy for the Elderly. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0912-0_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0912-0_26
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-7091-0911-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-0912-0
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)