Effect of Polypharmacy on Adverse Drug Reaction Among Geriatric Patients at Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Polypharmacy and Drug -related problems (DRPs) have been shown to prevail in hospitalized patients. We evaluated the prevalence of polypharmacy and investigated relationship between polypharmacy and adverse drug reaction occur with it. The present study was designed to identify the adverse drug reactions occur due to polypharmacy. METHODOLOGY: This observational study was conducted for 6 months in the various department of a tertiary care Super speciality Hospital at Malabar region of Kerala. The patients were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. RESULTS: A total of 60 geriatric inpatients were selected, of which approximately 60% were male. About 38% of population had co-morbidities (1-4) lead to more number of prescribed medications. More number of patients were admitted in general medicine department (43%) and secondly in neurological department (26%) followed by gastroenterology (15%) and general surgeon (5%). From the selected population, 30%of people occurred with adverse drug reactions. Among them 94.4% were assessed as possible cases by Naranjo’s algorithm scale CONCLUSION: Polypharmacy among geriatric patients is mainly due to the co-morbidities. This study concluded that polypharmacy among geriatric patients were high and a part of them (30%) were occurred with adverse drug reactions. Efforts should be made to improve appropriate medication and quality of life of geriatrics. Educational programmes need to be implemented and can improve the awareness of health care workers. Pharmacists also have a key role in improving appropriate use of medications. Keywords: Polypharmacy, geriatric, concomitant, drug interaction, Naranjo’s algorithm