New NPS MedicineWise educational program highlights medicine-related adverse events in older people

“The proportion of older Australians aged 75 years or more taking multiple medicines is double that of those aged 50-64 years. Of course this reflects the increasing number and complexity of comorbidities that occur with age, but by taking more medicines older people also have a higher risk of adverse events,” says Dr Binns.

“Prescribing in older people is a balance between managing conditions according to disease based guidelines and addressing patient goals while at the same time avoiding medicine-related problems. Sometimes this may require medicines to be stopped.”

The new NPS MedicineWise educational program Older and wiser: promoting safe use of medicines in older people has launched today with the release of the September edition of Medicinewise News titled ‘Older, wiser, safer’.

The program and the new publication highlight the risks associated with medicines use in older people and provide strategies to help GPs manage these risks to ensure the benefits of medicines are realised. 

Importantly NPS MedicineWise is encouraging all prescribers, including general practitioners and specialists, to adopt a coordinated approach to medicines management as an important aspect of a care plan for an older person, and to engage older people, their family and carers as active partners in health decisions. 

“Medicines are an essential component of care in older people and medicines safety is best achieved in partnership with them, since they are the ones having to manage their health and medicines on a daily basis,” says Dr Binns. 

The September issue of Medicinewise News looks at how the highly individual and varied way older people age influences their health needs which in turn will define goals for treatment or prevention. It also examines the importance of documenting medicines management and follow up as part of the overall care plan for an older person.

“There’s not much that can be done to modify ageing-related physiological changes that make responses to medicines in older people less predictable, so it is essential to promptly detect and mitigate complications as they arise,” she says. 

“The new NPS MedicineWise educational program encourages prescribers to consider current medicines as the cause of new symptoms before looking elsewhere — don’t assume symptoms relate to old age.”

Dr Binns also explains that while some medicines increase the risk of adverse events, few adverse events are clearly preventable at the stage of prescribing, which highlights the importance of monitoring and follow-up.

“Often the only way to know if a symptom is a side effect of a medicine is to temporarily stop the medicine to see if the symptoms improve,” she says.