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Article: Elderly are often prescribed wrong drugs.
- Article from:
- HealthFacts
- Article date:
- September 1, 1994
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Center for Medical Consumers, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Nearly one in four Americans over the age of 65 are given the wrong prescription drug (JAMA, 27 July 1994). In some cases, the erroneously prescribed drugs cause serious problems that could have been avoided by choosing a safer prescription drug; in other cases, the drug was not necessary at all. The findings came from a study involving over 6,000 Americans not in nursing homes who were selected from a national survey because they were broadly representative of the general population over 65.
The determination of inappropriate drug treatment was based on criteria established in 1977 by a panel of 13 American and Canadian geriatrics experts. It identified 20 drugs ...