Identifying potentially inappropriate prescribing in older people with dementia: a systematic review

• Hukins D, Macleod U, Boland JW. Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 2019 Apr;75(4):467–481. doi: 10.1007/s00228-018-02612-x. Epub 2019

Older people with dementia are at high risk of developing adverse events of drugs. This is especially problematic as some of the drugs they take might not be clinically indicated. In this rigorously conducted systematic review potentially inappropriate prescribing in this population was evaluated. After screening 3326 papers, 26 were included in the review. It showed that different tools were used to detect potentially inappropriate prescribing; the Beers Criteria was most commonly used, although this was used in various ways and only 2 of the 15 studies using it used the full tool. The prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescribing ranged from 14% to 74% (differences partly due to variations in tool application). The most common potentially inappropriate drugs were benzodiazepines, hypnotics and anticholinergic drugs. The authors recommend that tool use is more standardised, that tools are kept up to date and comprehensive to identify all potentially inappropriate medications in older people with dementia.

Attitudes of liver and palliative care clinicians toward specialist palliative care consultation for patients with end-stage liver disease

• Esteban JPG, Rein L, Szabo A, Saeian K, …