The rising tide of polypharmacy and drug-drug interactions: population database analysis 1995-2010

Guthrie, Bruce; Makubate, Boikanyo; Hernandez-Santiago, Virginia and Dreischulte, Tobias (2015): The rising tide of polypharmacy and drug-drug interactions: population database analysis 1995-2010. In: BMC Medicine 13

Abstract

Background: The escalating use of prescribed drugs has increasingly raised concerns about polypharmacy. This study aims to examine changes in rates of polypharmacy and potentially serious drug-drug interactions in a stable geographical population between 1995 and 2010. Methods: This is a repeated cross-sectional analysis of community-dispensed prescribing data for all 310,000 adults resident in the Tayside region of Scotland in 1995 and 2010. The number of drug classes dispensed and the number of potentially serious drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in the previous 84 days were calculated, and age-sex standardised rates in 1995 and 2010 compared. Patient characteristics

• Item Type: Journal article
• Keywords: Drug interactions; Family Practice; Physician; Polypharmacy; Prescribing patterns; Primary care
• Faculties: Medicine > Institute for General Medicine
• Subjects: 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health
• ISSN: 1741-7015
• Language: English