Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing in Elderly Outpatients
Department of Pharmacology and Department of Geriatric Medicine, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Corresponding Author: Kundu A, Doctus Journal of Pharmacology.
Abstract
We audited 1,024 prescriptions issued to outpatients aged 65 and over to quantify polypharmacy and screen for potentially inappropriate medication using Beers criteria. Five or more concurrent medicines were present in 38.4% of prescriptions and ten or more in 6.2%. At least one potentially inappropriate medicine appeared in 29.1%, most often a long-acting benzodiazepine, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory in the presence of renal impairment, or a first-generation antihistamine. Inappropriate prescribing rose steeply with the number of prescribers involved rather than with the number of diagnoses, pointing to fragmented care rather than clinical complexity as the driver.
Keywords
Polypharmacy; Beers Criteria; Geriatric Prescribing; Prescription Audit; Drug Safety; Deprescribing
How to Cite
Kundu A, Chatterjee S and Rahman M. “Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing in Elderly Outpatients”. Doctus Journal of Pharmacology 2.8 (2026): 55-70.
Copyright and Licence
© 2026 Kundu A. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.