Incidence of polypharmacy - Pharmacist role in Medication Optimization

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to find out the incidence of polypharmacy among geriatric populations to optimize the polypharmacy prescriptions to avoid unnecessary or inappropriate medication prescribing. A prospective cross-sectional interventional study was carried out using Beer’s criteria. The study was conducted by analyzing the prescriptions of geriatrics patients above 65 years of age who were prescribed with more than 5 medications with minimum 5 days of hospitalization. A total of 146 polypharmacy prescriptions were analyzed in which 5-10 drugs 10-15 drugs and 15-20 drugs were prescribed in 38.35% 41.78% and 19.86% of patients respectively. A high incidence of 43% of polypharmacy was in neurological disorders. Medication optimization was made in few cases by clinical pharmacist but as per Beer’s criteria 9 different potentially inappropriate medications were prescribed and these medications were not optimized because no negative outcomes were noted and it was necessary for the patients’ condition and their comorbidities with respect to their age.Thus the study concludes that polypharmacy in elderly population is due to patients’ comorbidities.