Letters
Inappropriate prescribing is "treatable"
EDITOR,--I read R E Ferner's editorial on drug errors with mixed feelings.1 Over a decade ago Gosney and I drew attention to inappropriate prescribing (the prescribing of contraindicated drugs and drugs with adverse interactions) for elderly patients admitted to hospital.2 We subsequently extended our surveys to patients seen in accident and emergency departments,3 patients in long term care wards, and patients in residential homes. We suggested that the conventional explanation for the high incidence of adverse drug reactions in elderly people (changes in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics related to age, multiple disease, and poor compliance) might distract from prescribing errors as a cause. Our most recent study showed that just under half of adverse drug reactions and hospital admissions related to drug treatment in elderly people were due to inappropriate prescribing.4
I have always seen this as good, rather than bad, news. Inappropriate prescribing seems more likely to be "treatable" than
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- Is there a cure for drug errors?
- R E Ferner
BMJ 1995 311: 463-464.[Extract] [Full Text]
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