Background: Polypharmacy, defined as being prescribed 5 or more medications, has been shown to be associated with a decline in mental and physical functioning in elderly patients. Despite this, elderly patients are currently being prescribed a median of 7 medications, which often causes more harm than benefit, and emphasizes the importance of deprescribing.
Methods: Five classes of potentially inappropriate medications for the elderly population, especially for the aging brain, are discussed, including anticholinergics, benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, opioids, and proton pump inhibitors. Recommendations regarding these medications were collected from the 2015 Beer's Criteria, the Screening Tool of Older Person's Prescriptions (STOPP) criteria, the Screening Tool to Alert doctors to the Right Treatment (START) criteria, and the Fit fOR The Aged (FORTA) list. The PubMed database was also searched for the most recent evidence regarding prescription patterns, adverse effects, and recommendations regarding discontinuation of these medications in older adults.
Results: Anticholinergics, benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, and opioids were all found to have significant adverse effects in the elderly population. All of the discussed medication classes have been shown to be successfully deprescribable.
Conclusions: Polypharmacy increases the risk of adverse drug reactions and hospitalizations in geriatric patients. Rational deprescribing of anticholinergics, benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, opioids, and proton pump inhibitors in selected patients may be a good first step to reducing this risk.