Drug interaction in elderly inpatients in the emergency department of a university hospital

• Autor(a) principal: Antunes, Juliane de Fátima Santos
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Okuno, Meiry Fernanda Pinto, Lopes, Maria Carolina Barbosa Teixeira, Campanharo, Cássia Regina Vancini, Batista, Ruth Ester Assayag
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Reme (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/reme/article/view/50060
• topic: Interacciones de Drogas; Anciano; Seguridad Del Paciente; Salud del Anciano; Interações de Medicamentos; Idoso; Segurança do Paciente; Saúde do Idoso; Drug Interactions; Aged; Patient Safety; Health of the Elderly

OBJECTIVE: To identify the occurrence of potential drug interactions in prescriptions for elderly patients in the emergency department. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with sample of 101 medical prescriptions of the first 24 hours of admission of elderly in the Emergency Room. Analysis of drug interactions was performed by Drugs.com database, which were classified as the potential for interaction: severe, moderate and mild. RESULTS: The number of drug prescriptions ranged 2-14 with an average of 5.8 per prescription. 587 drugs were included. There were identified 7% of severe interactions, 26.8% moderate and 7% mild; 11.3% severe / moderate, 21.1% moderate / mild and 26.8% severe / moderate / mild. CONCLUSION: This study identified drug interactions in prescriptions for elderly patients in the Emergency Room. They were mainly classified as moderate interactions. It is emphasized the importance of health professionals to take heed to potential interactions, monitoring prescriptions, staff training and monitoring of cases in order to reduce its occurrence.