An older adult starts an iron supplement, becomes constipated, and leaves the next appointment with a laxative. Another begins a statin, develops muscle aches, and is prescribed a pain reliever. Each step can look reasonable on its own, but a large new study suggests these sequences are common enough to deserve a closer look.
Published Sept. 10 in The BMJ, the study examined prescription records for 2,297,942 community-dwelling adults ages 66 and older in Ontario, Canada. Researchers tested 65 drug sequences that an international expert panel had previously flagged as potentially inappropriate. Of those, 24 met every threshold the team set for being both common and closely linked in time.
