Quality of drug prescribing in elderly people in nursing homes and special care units for dementia: a cross-sectional computerized pharmacy register analysis.

Background: Drug prescribing to the elderly is extensive and often inappropriate. Furthermore, the number of drugs used is the most important risk factor for adverse drug reactions. Despite this, drug prescribing in the elderly in Sweden is high and increasing.

Developing the role of the drug and therapeutics committees: perceptions of chairs.

Purpose: According to Swedish law, every county is required to have a local drug and therapeutics committee (DTC) to contribute to safe and cost-effective drug use. The law presents merely a framework and gives no detailed instructions addressing, for example, organisation and methods. The aim of this study is to explore the variation of conceptions of the role of the DTCs among committee Chairs and to compare the results with an earlier study.

The role of drug and therapeutics committees.

Purpose: Improved quality and safety in drug use is a public health goal of major importance. In Sweden, local drug and therapeutics committees (DTCs) have adopted the task of working for safe and rational drug use. This study aimed to explore how chairs conceived the role of the DTCs, to explore how information officers conceived their own role, and to determine whether the respondents included patients in their answers.

Drug-drug interactions in the elderly.

Objective: To detect the frequency of potential drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in an outpatient group of elderly people in 6 European countries, as well as to describe differences among countries.

Data Sources And Methods: Drug use data were collected from 1601 elderly persons living in 6 European countries. The study population participated in a controlled intervention study over 18 months investigating the impact of pharmaceutical care.

Nurse-physician communication and quality of drug use in Swedish nursing homes.

The objective was to explore the impact of the quality of nurse-physician communication on the quality of psychotropic drug use in Swedish nursing homes, while controlling for resident mix and other nursing home characteristics. Data were collected from a sample of 36 Swedish nursing homes providing care for 1645 residents. Drug use data, along with residents' demographic characteristics, were obtained from residents' medication administration lists.