THE DESIGN OF AN ALGORITHM FOR PHARMACISTS TO EVALUATE ADRs IN THE ELDERLY

Abstract

An algorithm has been developed to help pharmacists who monitor patients being admitted to hospital to evaluate identified adverse drug reactions (ADRs). The design features six operational axes, comprising four subdivisions, with a unique score assigned to each. The final total of the sum of the individual scores for the six axes provides a measure of the probability that a suspicious event is drug-related.

An investigation of the association of benzodiazepines and other hypnotics with the incidence of falls in the elderly

“…In addition, individual drug members of the benzodiazepine class were investigated separately for males and females to determine any apparent differences, using the chi-squared test. Clinical and medication information was collected for both datasets using the Pharmacheck System (7).…”

“…Tests exist, such as the Romberg-test, to help identify elderly patients who might fall but the latter has been found useful only in identifying certain specific causes and not suitable in formulating strategies to prevent such events (3). As drug treatment has been shown in a number of studies (4)(5)(6) to be a significant risk factor, data collected from patients at the point of hospital admission via a pharmacy monitoring system (7) were examined to determine whether hypnotics and benzodiazepines were associated with any increased incidence of falls in this population.…”