BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

1. POLYPHARMACY IN THE ELDERLY: EXPLORING THE PATIENTS’ PERSPECTIVEA. Driesen 1, S. De Coster 2, V. Foulon21Test Gezondheid, Brussels, 2Research Centre forPharmaceutical Care and Pharmaco-economics, K.U.Leuven, Belgium The majority of patients had moderate to good knowledge of the indication for each of the prescribed drugs. The most important source of informationforpatientsseemed the treatingphysician.Pharmacistswereconsidered a usefull and reliablesource of informationconcerning the practical use of medication. Generally, patients were quite satisfied with the information they received from their general practitioner and pharmacist. Somepatientsreadpatientinformationleaflets; others had nofurtherinformationdesire. PATIENTS’ ROLE IN MEDICATION MANAGEMENT Although patients don't discuss the choice of the medication ('the doctor knows what he is doing'), the majority of patients admitted to have stopped a drug once or alternated the dose or moment of intake by own initiative. Patients used various tools (e.g. daily pill boxes, medication lists,…) as to manage their medications. Often, they were very creative in finding solutions for practical problems. PATIENTS BELIEFS ABOUT MEDICATION Most patients saw their medication as ‘essential’ or ‘life-saving’. Patients considered the number of medication they had to take ‘a lot’, but didn’t perceive this as problematic. Polypharmacy is very common among older people. About 25% of people aged 65-74 and 40% of people over 70 are taking five or more drugs. Research has shown that the use of multiple drugs increases the risk of drug related problems, including reduced adherence to the treatment regimen (1). The aim of this study was to explore patients' views on polypharmacy as to understand their medication taking behavior. Some people had notes (written by the treating physician or by themselves) as to remember why each of the medications had been prescribed. When asked to sort their medication according to the perceived importance, patients relied often on what the GP had said on the importance of the drug. Patients also thought that medication that had to be taken every day, was more important than medication that had to be taken less frequently. • On a total of 186 drugs used in the study population, 54 drug related problems were identified: • 13 drugs were inappropriate according to the Beers criteria; 7 of those were benzodiazepines • 17 problems were identified using the Bednurscriteria; 9 problems were related to the chronic and combined use of psychopharmacological drugs • using Delphi care, drug-drug interactions were identified in 15 / 22 patients; in total, 31 combinations that required follow-up or change of the medication regimen were found Elderly patients trust their physician blindly when it comes to treatment choices. However, a detailed analysis of the medication profiles shows that a regular review of the medication used by elderly patients would be appropriate. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION REFERENCES (1) Anthierens S, Tansens A, Petrovic M, Christiaens T. Qualitative insights into general practitioners’ views on polypharmacy. BMC Family Practice 2010, 11:65 (2) Beers MH. Explicit criteria for determining potentially inappropriate medication used by the elderly. An Update. Arch In Med1997; 157; 1531-6 (3) Ruths S et al. Multidisciplinary medication review in nursing home residents: what are the most significant drugrelated problems? The Bergen District Nursing Home (BEDNURS) study. QualSaf Health Care 2003;12:176-80 METHODS RESULTS ANALYSIS OF MEDICATION PROFILES