EVALUATION OF POTENTIALLY INAPPROPRIATE PSYCHOTROPIC USE IN ELDERLY PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS

Introduction: Prescription of potentially inappropriate medications is common in older adults with high medical comorbidity and are at great risk for adverse drug reactions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potentially inappropriate psychotropics prescribing among geriatric patients with a psychiatric disorder. Materials and Method: This was a cross-sectional study of geriatric patients older than >= 65-year-old attended a psychiatry outpatient clinic. The socio-demographic data, the psychiatric diagnosis of the patients, the number and sort of potentially inappropriate psychotropics as defined by Beers Criteria 2019 were recorded. Results: In total 235 patients with a mean +/- standard deviation age of 73.95 +/- 7.30 years were included the study. The mean number of psychotropics and total drugs were 1.80 +/- 0.88 and 5.14 +/- 1.90, respectively. The rate of potentially inappropriate psychotropics was 35.7% and the most commonly prescribed psychotropics were antipsychotics (52.4%). Drug-drug interactions were found in 20.9% of patients. Female gender, the number of psychotropics, and total drugs used were significantly higher in potentially inappropriate psychotropics users than non-users. In logistic regression analysis, the use of potentially inappropriate psychotropics was associated with the number of psychiatric medications (OR=3.619, 95%CI 2.157-6.072; p<0.01) and the number of total drugs (OR=1.197, 95%CI 0.997-1.438; p=0.044). Conclusion: The prevalance of potentially inappropriate psychotropics use is high in elderly psychiatric patients. The most important determinants of potentially inappropriate psychotropics use were the number of medications and psychotropics being taken. Rational prescribing of psychotropic drugs in the elderly is a key component to reduce adverse drug events and drug-drug interactions.