Depression is often under-recognized in older patients, even if antidepressants (AD)
are commonly prescribed, with a prevalence of use that increase with ageing [
[1]
]. Nevertheless, even if a diagnosis of depression is established, inappropriate treatment
can occur [
[2]
]. Beers criteria are the most widely screening tools used to detect inappropriate
prescription of drugs in people aged 65 years or more [
[3]
]. Since 2010, attempts to adapt the Beers' criteria have been made in Europe [
[4]
,
[5]
]. Tricyclic drugs are the ADs to be always avoided in the elderly, owing to their
anticholinergic side effects, such as cognitive impairment, delirium, urinary retention
and falls [
[3]
]. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) should be used with caution because
they can cause or exacerbate hyponatraemia [
[3]
]. To our knowledge no studies have been conducted on recent data collected in hospitalized
older patients in order to assess the appropriateness of prescription of ADs. With
this background, the objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of
AD use and prescription appropriateness, according to the above-cited criteria, in
a large cohort of older patients hospitalized in Italian internal medicine and geriatric
wards from 2010 to 2017.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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References
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 09, 2019
Accepted:
July 25,
2019
Received:
July 23,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.