Inappropriate Drug Use in the Elderly: a Nationwide Register-Based Study

Abstract

IDU was fairly common among the elderly in Sweden in 2005 and was strongly connected to the number of dispensed drugs they were taking. Older age and female sex were related to inappropriate use of psychotropic drugs, whereas the opposite relationship prevailed for potentially serious drug-drug interactions. Future research is needed to determine whether IDU will become more common due to increasing use of drugs among elderly persons. The challenge is to balance the problems related to IDU without denying older people potentially valuable drug therapy.