[Medication reduction in a convalescent rehabilitation ward]

Senior citizens who have multiple diseases often receive multiple medications (polypharmacy). Because of the increased risk of adverse drug reactions with polypharmacy, trying to minimize the number of medications is important to medical care. Some rehabilitation physicians often treat multiple diseases alone, and hospitalization for rehabilitation provides a good opportunity to improve prescription practices. Our rehabilitation department has implemented a program to minimize the quantity of medications prescribed to hospitalized patients.

To examine reductions in medication consumption through suitable prescribing patterns during rehabilitation.

We investigated prescription practices and the reduction of medications from the clinical records of 203 patients who were admitted to our rehabilitation department from January to December, 2009.

Of the 203 patients, 131 (64.5%) were 75 years old or more, and 77 (37.9%) patients were less than 45 kg in weight. Patients took an average of 6.49 medications on admission and 6.02 on discharge. Ninety-two (45.3%) patients experienced a reduction in medication within one month. After a month, 77 (37.9%) patients experienced an increase in medication and only seven (3.4%) a decrease. No patient whose medications were reduced experienced adverse drug withdrawal reactions. The 14 patients whose antihypertensive medication was reduced experienced an excellent course. Similarly, those whose narcoleptic medications were reduced also did well.

Medications should be optimized, and reduced if possible, in the early stages of hospitalization. In the absence of adverse events, it appears possible to decrease the quantity of analgesic and gastrointestinal drugs by one-third.