Tools to reduce prescribing errors of psychotropic drugs in older adults

Inappropriate prescribing is a major problem in psychiatric care in older adults. Factors such as the high proportion of older people with a high prevalence of mental disorders, the physiological changes typical of aging, multimorbidity, polypharmacy, the lack of evidence in treatment guidelines for this population, the degree of professional ignorance; give rise to the propensity to make prescription errors of various kinds.

To review and summarize the available prescription tools that can provide support to improve prescription practices in psychopharmacology of the elderly. Method: A bibliographic review of the tools to reduce prescription errors in older adults was carried out: pharmacological reconciliation, interaction check, prevention, detection and reversal of prescription cascades and tools with explicit and implicit criteria (MAI, Beers, STOPP/START, FORTA, IFAsPIAM).

A clipping was made that groups the recommendations in the field of psychopharmacology.

As there are no specific tools to improve practices in geriatric psychopharmacology, a compendium of its recommendations can be of orientation to the psychiatrist of older adults.