Tools to reduce prescribing errors of psychotropic drugs in older adults

Abstract

Introduction: Inappropriate prescribing is a major problem in psychiatric care in older adults. Factors such as the high proportion of older people with a high prevalence of mental disorders, the physiological changes typical of aging, multimorbidity, polypharmacy, the lack of evidence in treatment guidelines for this population, the degree of professional ignorance; give rise to the propensity to make prescription errors of various kinds.

Objective: To review and summarize the available prescription tools that can provide support to improve prescription practices in psychopharmacology of the elderly. Method: A bibliographic review of the tools to reduce prescription errors in older adults was carried out: pharmacological reconciliation, interaction check, prevention, detection and reversal of prescription cascades and tools with explicit and implicit criteria (MAI, Beers, STOPP/START, FORTA, IFAsPIAM).

Results: A clipping was made that groups the recommendations in the field of psychopharmacology.

Conclusions: As there are no specific tools to improve practices in geriatric psychopharmacology, a compendium of its recommendations can be of orientation to the psychiatrist of older adults.