With the adoption of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), most HIV-infected individuals in care are on five or more medications and at risk of harm from polypharmacy, a risk that likely increases with number of medications, age, and physiologic frailty. Established harms of polypharmacy include decreased medication adherence and increased serious adverse drug events, including organ system injury, hospitalization, geriatric syndromes (falls, fractures, and cognitive decline) and mortality. The literature on polypharmacy among those with HIV infection is limited, and the literature on polypharmacy among non-HIV patients requires adaptation to the special issues facing those on chronic ART. First, those aging with HIV infection often initiate ART in their 3rd or 4th decade of life and are expected to remain on ART for the rest of their lives. Second, those with HIV may be at higher risk for age-associated comorbid disease, further increasing their risk of polypharmacy. Third, those with HIV may have an enhanced susceptibility to harm from polypharmacy due to decreased organ system reserve, chronic inflammation, and ongoing immune dysfunction. Finally, because ART is life-extending, nonadherence to ART is particularly concerning. After reviewing the relevant literature, we propose an adapted framework with which to address polypharmacy among those on lifelong ART and suggest areas for future work.

Objectives To describe the frequency of medication-related problems in older HIV-infected adults Design Retrospective chart review Setting And Participants Community dwelling HIV-infected adults age 60 and older and age and sex-matched HIV-uninfected adults Measurements Total number of medications, potentially inappropriate medications as defined by the modified Beers criteria, anticholinergic drug burden as defined by the Anticholinergic Risk Scale, and drug-drug interactions using Lexi-Interact online drug interactions database. Results Of 89 HIV-infected participants, most were Caucasian (91%) and male (94%) with a median age of 64 (range 60-82). Common comorbidities included hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and depression. Participants were taking a median of 13 medications (range 2-38), of which only a median of 4 were antiretrovirals. At least one potentially inappropriate medication was prescribed in 46 participants (52%). Sixty-two (70%) participants had at least one Category D (consider therapy modification) drug-drug interaction and 10 (11%) had a Category X (avoid combination) interaction. One-third of these interactions were between two non-antiretroviral medications. We identified 15 participants (17%) with an anticholinergic risk scale score ≥3. In contrast, HIV-uninfected participants were taking a median of 6 medications, 29% had at least one potentially inappropriate medication, and 4% had an anticholinergic risk scale score ≥ 3 (p-value <0.05 for each comparison except p=0.07 for anticholinergic burden). Conclusion HIV-infected older adults have a high frequency of medication-related problems, of which a large portion is due to medications used to treat comorbid diseases. These medication issues were substantially higher than HIV-uninfected participants. Attention to the principles of geriatric prescribing is needed as this population ages in order to minimize complications from multiple medication use.

Results suggest that targeting individuals with 11 or more chronic medications would have the highest yield and greatest impact. Pharmacist-led review of medication prescribing using Beers and STOPP criteria revealed a large number of PIP, many amenable to immediate clinical pharmacist intervention.