The American journal of geriatric pharmacotherapy
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Am J Geriatr Pharmacother · Dec 2006
Multicenter StudyPain and pain medication use in community-dwelling older adults.
Pain is a common symptom and significant problem for older adults; up to one half of community-dwelling older adults have pain that interferes with normal function. ⋯ Prescription pain medication use was associated with pain frequency/severity after adjusting for sociodemographics and OTC pain medications in this study of community-dwelling older adults, suggesting that even with medications, individuals remained in pain.
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Am J Geriatr Pharmacother · Dec 2006
Multicenter StudyAssociation of age with analgesic use for back and joint disorders in outpatient settings.
Pain is a common, troubling symptom of various disorders, chronically affecting up to 11% of adults in the general public. Despite a growing emphasis on improving the quality of pain management and the increasing use of analgesics over the past 20 years, pain remains undertreated for patients in a variety of clinical settings. Elderly patients, in particular, have disproportionately low rates of adequate pain control compared with younger patients. ⋯ In outpatient settings, elderly patients with pain and back or joint disorders tend to use NSAIDs more often and opioids less often than younger patients, suggesting that older patients may be receiving a poorer quality of pain management in outpatient settings.
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Am J Geriatr Pharmacother · Dec 2006
Multicenter StudyThe risk of adverse drug events and hospital-related morbidity and mortality among older adults with potentially inappropriate medication use.
Inappropriate medication prescribing is a significant problem among older adults that may contribute to increased morbidity and mortality as well as increased costs of care. The development of specific lists of medications that are considered potentially inappropriate for older adults, such as the Beers criteria (BC), make it relatively easy to study prescribing practices in large numbers of patients. ⋯ Interventions targeted specifically at BC medications would have seemingly done little to change the risk of ADEs in this population. Interventions that are more comprehensive than the BC are necessary to reduce the risk of ADEs and the associated morbidity and mortality in acute care of the elderly.