Older Adults Often Prescribed Meds Linked to Higher Side Effect Risks

A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society analyzed the 2006-2015 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey to learn more about prescribing trends of high-risk anticholinergic medications in the United States, reports Medical Xpress . "Older adults are vulnerable to these medications due in part to physiological changes as they age," says University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy Professor Greg Rhee. "In general, older adults have a higher likelihood of developing adverse drug events from taking multiple medications." The investigators probed whether prescribing patterns of these drugs have changed over time and whether they vary by physician specialty and anticholinergic class among older adults in their office-based care. The results indicated that 6 percent of doctors' visits studied within the survey period listed an anticholinergic medication, suggesting the prescribing pattern varies by specialty. In addition, antidepressants were most prevalent among anticholinergic drugs prescribed to older adults, by medication class. Meanwhile, women were more likely to receive high-risk anticholinergic prescriptions, as were people from the South. Another finding was that people prescribed with six or more medications had a greater probability of being given high-risk anticholinergic prescriptions. Rhee calls for increasing awareness of potential adverse effects and encouraging providers to prescribe less-risky drugs.