New version of STOPP­-START criteria 2023. A suitable tool for drug prescribing optimization in older patients

Abstract

New revised and updated STOPP-START criteria, version 3 are explicit criteria for sceening and identification of potentially inappropriate medications and treatments in patients 65 years and older, and medications and treatments omittted despite their potential benefit in older persons. Part STOPP (Screening Tool of Older People’s Potentially inappropriate Prescriptions) includes 133 drugs/drug classes that are inappropriate or risky in older patients. Part START (Screening Tool to Alert doctors to the Right Treatment) includes 57 potentially beneficial treatments which are frequently underprescribed despite their evidence-based benefit also in older age. In the Czech Republic both versions were already piloted in research and are being used in clinical practice as a tool supporting rational prescription in geriatric patients. In the article the STOPP – START criteria version 3 (2023) are presented in extenso in Czech language so that they could be used by geriatricians and general internists particularly when medication review is performed in complex older patients at high risk of adverse drug reactions. We believe that the use of STOPP-START criteria will contribute to safer and rational prescribing.