Key result
This review of four exemplary 2022 studies highlights key advancements in deprescribing, medication safety, and optimizing medication use to promote safe regimens in older adults.
Why the study?
Improving the quality of medication use and medication safety are important priorities for healthcare providers who care for older adults.
This review highlights four key 2022 studies that advance the field of medication safety, deprescribing, and optimization in older adults.
May inform deprescribing tools and gabapentin caution now in older adults; leaves open practice change from this Level 4 review.
Improving the quality of medication use and medication safety are important priorities for healthcare providers who care for older adults. The objective of this article was to identify four exemplary articles with this focus in 2022. We selected high-quality studies from an OVID search and hand searching of major high impact journals that advanced the field of research forward. The chosen articles cover domains related to deprescribing, medication safety, and optimizing medication use. The MedSafer Study, a cluster randomized clinical trial in Canada, evaluated whether patient specific deprescribing reports generated by electronic decision support software resulted in reduced adverse drug events in the 30 days post hospital discharge in older adults (domain: deprescribing). The second study, a retrospective cohort study using data from Premier Healthcare Database, examined in-hospital adverse clinical events associated with perioperative gabapentin use among older adults undergoing major surgery (domain: medication safety). The third study used an open-label parallel controlled trial in 39 Australian aged-care facilities to examine the effectiveness of a pharmacist-led intervention to reduce medication-induced deterioration and adverse reactions (domain: optimizing medication use). Lastly, the fourth study engaged experts in a Delphi method process to develop a consensus list of clinically important prescribing cascades that adversely affect older persons' health to aid clinicians to identify, prevent, and manage prescribing cascades (domain: optimizing medication use). Collectively, this review succinctly highlights pertinent topics related to promoting safe use of medications and promotes awareness of optimizing older adults' medication regimens.
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Gray et al. (2023) conducted a review in Medication use quality and safety. Medication safety and deprescribing interventions was evaluated. This review of four exemplary 2022 studies highlights key advancements in deprescribing, medication safety, and optimizing medication use to promote safe regimens in older adults.