Pill-count and the arithmetic of risk: Evidence that polypharmacy is a health status marker rather than a predictive surrogate for the risk of ADEs 
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Pill-count and the arithmetic of risk: Evidence that polypharmacy is a health status marker rather than a predictive surrogate for the risk of ADEs
. Int J Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2018 Oct 26;: Authors: Haefeli WE, Meid AD Abstract With advancing age there is an increase in the disease burden and thus in the number of drugs prescribed to this patient group. It is often assumed that an increase in pill count is associated per se with an increase in the number of medication errors (e.g., potentially inappropriate prescribing, PIP) and the frequency of adverse drug events (ADE). However, prescribing more drugs can also mean more successful treatment, making it important to critically assess the benefit/risk balance of the medications prescribed in each patient. Whether a prescribed medication is appropriate depends on the clinical state of the patient (diagnoses), treatment goals, comedication/drug interactions, patient preferences, whether the patient tolerates the drug, a measure of how frail the patient is, etc. It is often argued that the number of prescribed drugs should be restricted, but we hold the view that this should only be done after careful consideration of the factors mentioned above. In our study, we remodeled the findings of two large cohort studies investigating the association between the number of drugs prescribed and clinical endpoints. The graphic illustrations obtained confirmed that targeting pill count, as a meas...
Source: International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Tags: Int J Clin Pharmacol Ther Source Type: research