In the context of improved medication management of older patients, we wished to evaluate the overprescription of potentially inappropriate drugs [α1-blockers and 5α-reductase inhibitors (5-ARI)] for benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). These drugs are considered by geriatricians to increase the risk of falls and pharmacodynamic interactions, but these properties have not yet been proven.
This was a descriptive study of drug prescriptions in a geriatric academic center.
We included all patients older than 75 years who received a prescription for α1-blockers or 5-ARIs for 2 weeks in our hospital.
We evaluated the prevalence of the potentially inappropriate prescription of α1-blockers and 5-ARI in older people during hospitalization using a new tool consisting of an 8-item list of explicit indicators developed using the most recent summary of product characteristics (SmPC) and latest European Association of Urology (EAU) guidelines.
A population of 117 patients (≥75 years) was included in the study. The median age was 84.5 (±6.3) years. The average time since urological medication prescription was 1.2 ± 1.6 years. According to explicit criteria, 84 patients (71.8%) received at least 1 potentially inappropriate urologic medication, 77 (91.7%) related to α1-blockers. Patients with a potentially inappropriate prescription for α1-blockers and/or 5-ARIs more frequently had urological assessments (P = .026), more frequently showed pharmacological interactions, with the risk of orthostatic hypotension (P = .005) or arrhythmia (P = .028), and experienced more falls in their history (P = .043). The misuse group was associated with an increased risk of falls, with an odds ratio of 3.22 (P = .039, 95% confidence interval 1.08-10.2).
In our study, potentially inappropriate prescriptions for older individuals for BPH was close to 72% and mainly involved α1-blockers. Potentially inappropriate prescriptions for BPH were associated with a threefold higher frequency of falls.
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2021 Oct 13 [Epub ahead of print]
Thomas Renoncourt, Fabien Saint, Youssef Bennis, Lisa Mondet, Frédéric Bloch
Department of Geriatric Medicine, CHU Amiens-Picardie, Amiens, France. Electronic address: ., Department of Urology and Transplantation, CHU Amiens-Picardie, Amiens, France; EPROAD Laboratory EA 4669, Picardie Jules Verne University, Amiens, France., Department of Pharmacology, CHU Amiens-Picardie, Amiens, France., Department of Geriatric Medicine, CHU Amiens-Picardie, Amiens, France.