Abstract
Questions from physicians to regional medicines information and pharmacovigilance centres in Norway (RELIS) concerning older patients were described. Question–answer pairs (QAPs) from the RELIS database indexed with the category “older”, and concerning individual patients from the period 01 Jan 2010 to 31 Dec 2015, were analysed. Two-hundred and eight QAPs categorized with “older” were retrieved from a total of 16 710 in the study period, and 122 of 208 QAPs fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The most common categories of drugs in question (n = 228) according to the ATC system were N: Nervous system (30.3%) and C: Cardiovascular system (23.7%). Questions from physicians (n = 122) were most frequently about adverse effects (41.8%) and treatment (39.3%). The majority of questions to RELIS concerning older patients came from general practice (GP). The results suggest drug information efforts to GPs in care of older patients with regard to psychopharmacology and cardiovascular pharmacology.
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Schjøtt performed study concept and design, data interpretation, and manuscript preparation.
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Schjøtt, J. Physicians’ questions concerning drug use among older patients: experience from Norwegian drug information centres (RELIS) in the period 2010–2015. Aging Clin Exp Res 30, 867–870 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-017-0832-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-017-0832-6